


Star Wars: The Last Jedi - A Rewriting.

by witchbreed



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Chewbacca/eating porgs, Han/Lando - Freeform, Han/Luke - Freeform, Leia/Amilyn, Leia/Han - Freeform, Multi, Rey/Jess Pava, Rey/Rose - Freeform, Rose/Kaydel, everybody here is a little gay lmfao, luke/wedge, other ships implied or mentioned:, the resistance are the gay chads and the first order are the white incels of the galaxy, this could also be known as: Star Wars: The FinnPoe Chronicles (and other stuff happens too!)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-12
Updated: 2018-01-12
Packaged: 2019-03-04 00:04:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 33,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13352298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/witchbreed/pseuds/witchbreed
Summary: what Star Wars: The Last Jedi could - or should - have been.





	Star Wars: The Last Jedi - A Rewriting.

**Author's Note:**

> The idea behind this rewriting came from the fact that there were...so many things that (in my humble opinion) the original movie left wanting. There were many things that could have been explored but that, well, weren't, much of it due to bad writing - so here is my attempt at scavenging something out of Rian Johnson's original concepts. Some scenes/plot points are similar to the final cut of the movie, but adapted to fit into the new narrative. Feedback is, as always, appreciated.
> 
> the cast remains much the same, although picture Senator Ava Sloane as Lupita Nyong'o (who I honestly believe ought to have had a bigger role than just portraying Maz Kanata).

* * * * *

* * * * *

 

It's been months since the resistance dealt a heavy blow to the First Order's forces

during the assault of Starkiller Base, taking down their weapon of mass destruction.

The First Order has retaliated, deploying legions to seize military control

over the galaxy, hunting down rebels and forcing the resistance to scatter.

 

The allied forces, led General Organa, do their best to hold off their attacks,

in the hopes that Jedi Master Luke Skywalker will return, but as the days

of radio silence pass, that light seems to be extinguishing...

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

“Come on, we need to hurry up!” a woman shouted, tightening the scarf wrapped around her head. Her voice was barely audible through the raging of the storm that surrounded them. Heavy green clouds took over the skies of what had once been the luminous city of V’Kifa, spitting acid and poison onto everything – and everyone – on its path. Thunder shook the platforms of the makeshift military base the Resistance had managed to install not far from the ruins of the city, and lightning painted the sky at every two or three heartbeats, revealing the things that had come out of hiding from under the tunnels that ran through all of Kuyper, awaken either by the attacks of the First Order onto the surface or the imminent destruction of the planet itself; creatures with dozens of eyes and twice as many tentacles, who were never quite as far away as any of them hoped.

They were not, by far, the most terrifying thing the rebels had seen while waiting for the go-ahead to depart.

“Are you the last ones?” Lieutenant Connix asked the woman as she approached the gates of the craft with her two children in hand. “Is there anyone else still on the planet?”

“No, I don’t – I don’t think so”, she answered, clutching to her kids for dear life. It was clear she had been doing so for a while: the boy and the girl were mostly unscathed, but the mother had severe burns over much of her hands and face, turning her brown skin into a blistering shade of purple – another side-effect of the chemical weapon the First Order had deployed on the surface of the planet, once its citizens refused to bow down to them. The Resistance had managed to arrive on time with a rescue party, but many had still been lost.

Looking at the environment outside of the windows of the shuttle, there was no way their enemies could have known how fast and how wild the changes on the planet would take place. Or perhaps they did, and that was their intention all along.

So many people had been lost. There had been so many times where their rescue hadn't arrived fast enough.

“We are ready to go, Admiral”, Connix reported, back at the bridge.

Admiral Ackbar was not entirely sure about that. “We still need confirmation from the commander.”

Outside, the howling winds shook the ship to the core. “I don't think that’s an option!”

“We have to trust Dameron knows what he is doing.”

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

 _Did_ Poe know, though? That was as good enough a question as any.

Far above, past the toxic clouds, a fight raged on between Resistance and First Order. A Manator IV-class Siege Dreadnought and about half a dozen Star Destroyer ones were stationed outside of the planet, forming a blockage that had halted any transport from coming in and out for the last few days, and now sat and waited for the ships with the survivors to try and jump to lightspeed; their orders were to either capture them or take them down, but most of the trigger-happy Admirals were more than happy to call them casualties of war, another prime example of what would happen to the neighbor planets if they did not bend to their command.

Poe and his X-Wing pilots were there to prevent it, but with more and more TIE fighters being churned out of the cruisers, it was hard to feel like they were winning the battle. As long as the dreadnought was standing, there was no way the refugees could come out of the planet safely. “We need a new plan!” he shouted over the comms. “Testor, can you cover for me?”

“Kinda busy right now!” Jessika screamed, flying past two blown TIE fighters. “What the hell are you up to, Dameron?”

 _Isn’t that a good question?_ , Poe asked himself, gathering up whatever courage he had left. “BB8, punch it”, he said to his droid, who let out an offensive beep. His fighter charged forward, flying past friends and foes alike, towards the battlecruiser.

 _That idiot is gonna kill his whole damn self_ , Jessika thought, gritting her teeth. She turned back and flew towards Poe, taking out the TIE fighters who had caught wind of what Black Leader was about to do.

He took out the first three cannons of the dreadnought before its commanders had time to register what he was doing – and by the time they did, Poe had already moved on to the next target.

On the battlecruiser nearby, the leader of the assault, General Armitage Hux, watched with exasperation as the explosions on the surface of the dreadnought multiplied. “Captain Canady, why haven’t you blasted that puny ship out yet?” he asked, angrily, as soon as he could get a transmission through to the main ship.

“That _puny ship_ is at too close range! We need to tighten our defenses”, _you insolent bastard_ , Canady added to himself, but bit down his tongue before he could let the last part out.

“He’ll never penetrate our defenses”, his first-mate assured, at his side.

“He’s not _trying_ to penetrate our armor! He’s cleaning out our surface cannons!”

Above them, Poe took out the second-to-last cannon, just as another fleet of TIE fighters came hot in his trail. BB-8 beeped nervously.

“Yeah, yeah, I see them too. Let’s do this!”

He took a hard left, slipping through an air vent. The fighter following him was not fast enough to dodge.

Behind him, Pava took out two others, but the last one slipped past her, firing at Poe’s left wing before it crashed hard on the surface of the cruiser. The shot missed for the most part, but still managed to send Poe’s system into a frenzy.

“Oh no, oh no – BB-8, my weapon systems are down! We gotta take out that last cannon or we are toast!”

On top of him, the droid beeped angrily. _What the hell do you want me to do?_

“Help me out here, buddy! Work your magic!”

Annoyed, the droid retreated. The control panel was in shambles, with sparks flying everywhere. It shoved its arc welder into the source of the sparks, but then another one just popped out. Then another one. And another.

The cannon was still firing at them, and so were the dozen other TIE fighters who, by order of their commander, had turned back on Poe, who had found that zig-zagging out of their shooting range would – could – only take him so far.

“I know you’re doing your best there buddy, but it’s now or never!” Poe hurried, zeroing in on the target. The weapon system was still flashing red.

With the control panel still blowing up in sparks and not enough time to fix it, BB-8 did the only thing it thought would work – pulled his arc welder back and shoved its own head there instead.

Not a permanent fix, but just enough to bring Dameron’s blasters back into functionality. He blew up the cannon and, while the smoke cleared, turned around and took down the last of the TIE fighters still on his trail.

“Woo-hoo! All clear! General Organa, we’re gonna need a little help over here!”

Aboard the _Raddus_ , on the other side of the barricade, General Organa – alongside C-3P0 and a handful of other advisers – waited with bathed breath. While they had expected a heavy number of First Order ships waiting for them, the presence of a dreadnought was a (rather undesirable) surprise. With their depleted numbers scattered across the galaxy and without the aid of the New Republic’s fleet, they didn’t have a vessel strong enough to counter their technology.

And yet, commander Dameron seemed to strive on. Even now, after so many years of working alongside him, he still managed to surprise her.

Just like his mother.

“What do you have in mind?” she asked.

“Do we got any bombers with a payload ready?”

“We can arrange that.”

It was a matter of minutes before the bomb squad made the jump from lightspeed – only four vessels were equipped at the time of General Organa’s call; still, enough to do what Poe had in mind.

The X-Wing pilots went in formation, swarming around the bombers to make sure the TIE fighters couldn’t get too close for comfort. The ones not in formation were responsible for getting the few annoying TIE fighters out of the way. The road was clear to the dreadnought.

But, as we know, nothing is ever as good as it seems.

Just as the bombers hovered over the edge of the dreadnought, its ports opened again, a new stream of TIE fighters was spilled out – except those were different. Branded in bright-red rather than black, they were bigger and more powerful than the usual models, and with them came a fury the Resistance had not seen yet.

“Oh no”, Poe heard Iolo saying over the comm links.

“What? What are those things?” He asked, watching as his shots were deflected. Did they have some kind of reflector shield like the one he had stolen on his way out of capture?

“They are magnum-class superiority fighters”, Iolo said. “Next-level stuff! They have shield brea–”

The connection went dead suddenly as Poe watched Iolo’s X-Wing be blown out of the sky by one of the new models. He was not the only one.

Red alerts began popping on his screen as the Magnum-class TIE fighters swept through the ranks – half of Cobalt Squadron was gone before anyone had even the time to understand what was happening, and so was their bomber with them. Dagger Squadron wasn’t faring much better, either.

Poe went after one of the new enemies, just in time to watch as they tore Snap’s X-Wing in half.

 _Oh, no_ indeed.

“We need to pull back”, he said, to anyone who was listening. “Now, we need to pull back now!"

“What? No, commander, we are almost there!” came the answer. Of the three bombers left, there was one ahead of the others. Nix Jerd was the one in command.

“You are not gonna make it in time!”

“We have to try!” he insisted.

To their left, the second bomber was taken out, exploding too soon over the surface of the dreadnought. The blast managed to take some of the Magnum fighters with it, but not enough to make a difference.

Some of the other pilots seemed to have heard Poe’s call and tried to disengage, but the sheer number of TIE fighters, advanced or not, had them surrounded. When the third bomber failed to reach the mark, they knew they were in trouble.

“General Organa, do you read me? We need to pull back before we have _no one else_ to pull back!”

“Not yet”, Leia answered, pained. “There’s still a chance they can make it through.”

“Yeah, a _small_ one! We can’t take that gamble!”

 _Can’t_ or _shouldn’t_? Leia asked herself. Sometimes a gamble was all there was.

They said rebellions were built on hope, but that was not the only thing that served as their foundations.

The Cobalt Hammer approached the vent, and every second seemed to drag itself for too long. The longer bomber left standing had become a point of target practice for all Magnum fighters, who were taking their titles of shield breakers very seriously. Despite their defenses at max, the bomber was taking heavy hits.

“Come on, you piece of junk, just a little more!” Jerd grunted, he and Finch Dallow trying to maneuver out of the way of the incoming attackers. In their desperation, they failed to notice as one of the blasts broke through the barrier, blowing up half of the cockpit.

“I knew this was gonna happen”, Poe cursed, under his breath. “Someone get Tico out of there before –”

“No! No, I can do it! I can do it!” he heard screaming. Paige Tico, their gunner, was still on the ship.

“Paige, listen to me, you have to –”

“Those things are _fleetkillers_ , commander! If we don’t stop them here and now, we may not have another chance!” she insisted. Retreating from the position, Paige climbed inside the bomber, reaching the cockpit seconds before fire consumed it completely – the detonator safely in her hands.

But that was just one part of the problem.

Every new blast from the enemy ships rocket the _Cobalt Hammer_ , and if the fire began to spread to the proton bombs, they would go off sooner than expected. For her, there was no way to go; no way to jump ship once the moment came.

Still. She knew what she had to do.

“Commander Dameron? Poe? Can you send my sister a message?” she pleaded. “Can you – can you tell Rose –”

The message was passed forward, just as bomber reached the designated spot. Paige pressed the button, holding tight to the half-moon necklace around her neck, the bombs flying down all around her and the fire engulfing the rest of the spacecraft.

The bombs destroyed everything on their way, including the TIE fighters (Magnum or otherwise) still trying to take the bomber down. The explosion spread through the dreadnought, a wave of destruction that could be seen from afar – like a star going supernova. Poe watched from the distance, as did General Organa, both with a heavy heart.

But only one with a sense of relief.

“Now it’s the time to pull back, Poe. Make the jump to lightspeed”, Leia instructed.

The remaining X-Wings got information, escorting the ships coming out of the planet – at least twenty cruisers with the remnants of an entire civilization, slipping out of the planet just before the acid storms took everything out. Together, they charged past the Star Destroyers, quickly disappearing from their radars; leaving the First Order behind to deal with the wreckage of their failure.

Perhaps, General Hux would find, much sooner than they anticipated.

“General, an incoming transmission from Supreme Leader Snoke”, informed one of the technicians.

He swallowed dry. Those damned force-sensitive people; might as well have a radio transmitter implanted in their brains. “Excellent! Great. I – I will take it in my chambers.”

He turned away from the windows, only to find himself staring at the gigantic holographic disfigured image of Snoke himself, as though it had come out straight from one of his very frequent nightmares.

“General Hux”, Snoke spit out.

“Ah, yes. Good. I was just about to –”

The words were choked out of his mouth as he found an invisible grip tightening around his throat, before he was smashed, face-first, onto the floor and dragged across it like a puppet. “My disappointment with your performance cannot be overstated”, Snoke continued, ignoring he had even opened his mouth.

“They won’t get away this time, Supreme Leader”, Hux assured, wiping the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. “We have them exactly where we want them.”

“You have said that before.”

“Yes, but this time-” he hurried to get himself back up. The personnel on the bridge turned away, either pretending they hadn’t seen his fall or trying not to snicker. “–This time we have an advantage they won't see coming.”

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

Whether or not that was the case, the Resistance had managed to make a clean get away. Their jump to lightspeed landed in Crait, a small inhabited planet on the Outer Rim – originally a mining station, it had been repurposed as a Rebel Alliance outpost, back when the Rebel Alliance was in its early stages, though it ended up not being used.

Leia, however, still remembered its location. That had come in handy when they needed a new medical facility.

It wasn’t much, but they made do.

The _Raddus_ was the last to arrive at the ship harbor. By then, the cruisers with the refugees had already landed, and there was a commotion waiting to welcome them.

Among the raggedy people, a figure stood out – not by height so much, as she was just 5’4”, but her formal, almost regal, garments denounced her as a figure of leadership. She was a beautiful dark-skinned woman, with strong cheekbones and deep black eyes, the kind that exude kindness but demand respect. The curve of her eyebrows was adorned with small red marks, as was the tradition of high-ranking people from V’Kifa; a title she had fought to earn. When Leia left the ship, she stepped forward, her assistant at her right side and Connix at her left.

“General Organa”, she said, cordially. “Thank you for coming to our aid so quickly. Had it been a day later, I don’t know if we would have been able to make it.”

“That’s what we are here for, Senator Sloane”, Leia assured, taking the woman’s hands on hers. Ava Sloane was one of the last Senators to have survived the wipe out of the Galactic Senate. Despite her young age – still in her twenties – she had become one of the strongest figures in the Senate, especially so in her opposition to the growing Centrist movement in their ranks.

She and Leia had not had the chance to speak at length with one another, but in those trying times, both women knew they needed whatever help they could get.

“Is this a safe place?” Ava asked, turning back to the refugees. “There are many among us who need medical assistance and rest.”

“It’s not ideal, but yes. There are two shielding layers covering the atmosphere of the planet that will thwart any possible invasion. If that fails, the doors will make-do.”

“Good. My assistant, Larma–” the blonde woman next to her perked up, brushing away a strand of hair from her face. “Has a list of all people that were evacuated, in case they need to contact someone from outside the planet, to assure them they are safe.”

“Lieutenant Connix will get to that”, she assured, and Kaydel nodded in agreement.

“Thank you”, she sighed. “For everything. This has been rough, on all of us. My people were not ready for this. Any of this.”

“I understand. We’ll do everything we can to help you.”

The Senator gave her a sad smile. “I just feel this is all my fault, somehow. Since I took office, I’ve tried to sway our planet towards a more Populist alignment. Perhaps if we had stayed as Centrists…”

“The people from your planet would still suffer. Your children would still be taken from your homes to serve the First Order. You did what you thought best. Never second-guess that”, Leia said, tapping her shoulder gently. “Now, if you don’t mind, there is someone else who’d also like to have a word with me.”

She had spotted him even before she had seen Senator Sloane; standing at the very end of the hangar, with his arms folded and a frown on his face, Poe Dameron could not have been less discreet if he tried.

Leia took a deep breathe, preparing herself mentally for the conversation. It didn’t exactly take a genius to know it wouldn’t be a pleasant one.

“General Organa, may I have a word with you? In private?” he asked, hiding his hands behind his back.

She sighed, heading to their control room. “If you must.”

“What we did back there, it was–”

"Dangerous? Impulsive? Careless?”

“I was going to say _out of procedure_ ", he corrected, though he didn’t deny thinking any of these things. “We were outnumbered and outgunned. We should have retreated.”

“We should, yes, but didn’t you hear what Ms. Tico said? If we had pulled back, we may not have had another chance like that.”

“But – but we lost so many people. Good people.”

“Yes, but look around, Poe. Look at how many we saved.”

He did, and he knew what she meant, even if it did not ease the clot in the back of his throat.

She knew what he was going through – some of the X-Wings who hadn’t made it back were part of his squadron, if the _Raddus_ ’ tracker was correct. It was never easy losing friends, family, people you loved and cared about. When Alderaan... it took her weeks, even months to come to terms with Alderaan being gone.

Every once in a while Leia wasn’t entirely sure if she had, really.

“Sometimes,” she said, resting a heavy hand upon his shoulder. “The sacrifice of one is worth the lives of many.”

“I know. I know. I’m sorry, you’re right. You’re right. It’s just...” he fidgeted, rubbing the back of his neck. “Does it ever get easier? To deal with this? To make these decisions?”

She wanted to say that yes, it did. It would get better with time, with experience. She also knew his question was rhetorical; there was no sense in lying to him. “No. We just...keep going, the best we can. It's something you’ll need to learn to do, especially now that you’re a Colonel.”

He blinked a couple of times, confused. “I’m – sorry, what?”

“I’m promoting you, Dameron. Effective immediately.”

“But I–”

“I know. And I trust that next time, when it’s up to you to make the right choice, you will. Now, don't you have somewhere else to be?”

Poe ground his teeth with a grimace. He knew exactly what she meant.

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

“Rose?” Poe called, poking his head between the machinery in the back of the _Raddus_. She was still there, as he suspected, quickly wiping her tears as soon as she realized someone was coming. Rose Tico, Paige’s little sister.

She stood up, hiding in her pocket the half-moon necklace, the second half to her sister's own. “Yes, commander Dameron, sir?”

“I’m sorry to, uh, interrupt”, he said, rubbing his hands together awkwardly. He had searched for her across the base, until it dawned on him that she had probably not found the strength to leave the ship yet. If it had been hard for him to watch his teammates fall, he could not begin to fathom what she had gone through if she had seen her sister’s demise. “Can I speak with you for a moment?”

“Do you need me for something?”

“No, it's just...” damn it, Dameron. “Your sister...Paige asked me to tell you that she loved – that she _loves_ you. And that she’ll always be with you, no matter what. She asked me to say, I don’t know how to pronounce it, it's something like o...oy’n mïlo, or mylo, I’m sorry–”

“ _Oy'n mïlo owê_ ”, Rose corrected, trying to hold back more tears. “ _Wëh oss ay’rï ÿ noy roù_. It's old Hayssian. It means _I’m never alone, as long as you’re in my heart_. It’s what…what our parents used to tell us. Thank you, commander Dameron.”

“I’m sorry for what happened, Rose. If you need someone to talk to –”

He was interrupted by a series of loud, distressed beeps that warned him, even before he saw the orange-and-white ball rolling into the room, that BB-8 was coming. It anxiously head-butting him in the leg.

“Hold on BB, let me just –”

More anxious beeps.

“What do you mean Finn is awake? Since _when_?”

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

Minutes before – and he had woken up screaming.

Finn’s last memory was of Rey being slammed against a tree, before he himself felt the soaring pain of a lightsaber almost splitting his back in half in the middle of the forest. When next he woke up, it was in a meticulously white room, in a bed, surrounded by machines, with tubes stuck into places he wasn’t sure tubes should be stuck into. The nurses, busy attending all the new patients, hurried to his aid, but in his shock, he didn’t seem willing to listen.

At least not until Poe, followed by BB-8 and Rose – proof enough that he was safe and sound and in the Resistance – walked in.

“Buddy! You’re alright!” Poe said, sighing in relief, as he wrapped his arms around him.

“Poe! What – where are we? Where is Rey? What is going on?”

“We’re in a Resistance base. We’re fine. Everything is fine.”

“But where is Rey?”

Poe cringed. “Well...it’s complicated.”

“Complicated how? What happened?”

“Rey is training with my brother,” came the voice from the door. They turned to see General Organa waiting at the door.

“So I guess it’s…not complicated”, Poe clarified, with a shrug.

“When can I see her?” Finn asked.

“She is not at this base at the moment, but she left you a message with BB-8”, Leia explained, approaching the bed. “You can listen to it after Poe gets you up to speed on what’s been going on. You have a lot of catching up to do.”

"I have? Why? How long have I been out?"

“Couple of months”, Rose said, almost without thinking. Only then Finn realized she was standing there, half-hidden behind Poe.

“Sorry, I’m a little dizzy, but who...are you, again?” Finn asked, trying not to sound too impolite.

Poe moved out of the way so he could see her properly. “I’m...my name is Rose. Rose Tico. I’m a huge fan.”

“You are? Of who?”

“Of you!”

“Wait. What? What's that supposed to mean?” he asked, looking from Poe to Leia to BB-8. “Is she making fun of me?”

Dameron and the General shared a look – something between a laugh and a grimace.

"She is not”, Leia assured. “You’ve become quite popular last couple of months. The stories of your defecting the First Order, breaking through your Stormtrooper programming... you caused a spark that gave the courage to a lot others to do the same.”

“Including my sister and I”, Rose said, lowering her eyes. Finn knew what that look meant.

“I guess you really are a Big Deal in the Resistance, now”, Poe said, with a smirk.

Finn wanted to smile, too, but the pressure in his chest was weighting a ton. Yes, he knew she was with Luke Skywalker, but the question remained: _where_ was Rey?

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

**A COUPLE OF MONTHS EARLIER, AHCH-TO.**

The figure of Luke Skywalker stood atop of the hill, with nothing but the majestic blue backdrop of the ocean behind him. He was...ethereal, almost. Rey waited in front of him, with the lightsaber extended towards him, but he didn’t take it.

“Keep it”, he said, instead.

That took her by surprise. “Excuse me?”

“The lightsaber”, he said, shortening the distance between them. “It called for you, didn’t it? Best you keep it, then. Besides, I’ve already got my own.”

He stopped in front of her, his eyes glistening against the morning sun. Gently, Luke placed his hands at both sides of her face, a touch that felt so strange and yet so familiar to her, it almost sent her in tears.

“I have been waiting for you”, he said, his voice a little more than a whisper.

Her lip quivered. “Do – do you know who I am, then? Why I came here? Do you… do you know where my parents are?”

He stroked her cheek, wiping away a tear that she had fought very hard against rolling out, but that still came anyway. “I will answer all your questions, if you answer me one first.”

“Anything”, she said.

“Where is Chewie?”

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

Chewbacca pulled him into a hug so tight Luke thought it would bend his spine in half. He, then, proceeded to smack him in the head.

“Hey! What was this for?” Luke complained.

Chewie growled.

“Okay, that's fair. But you know I had to do it, right? Right?”

Chewie pouted, but nodded his head in agreement. He let out a sad grunt, while Luke took one of the seats in the back of the Millennium.

“Yeah, I know. I felt it... even from here”, he said, staring at the empty space where Han had one sat. Luke could almost picture still, he and Leia and Han and Chewie and Lando, sitting there and relaxing, in the few moments they had while trying to put the galaxy back together.

He touched the empty seat, suddenly very aware of his age, and how it weighed on his bones – and in his heart.

Chewie groaned.

“Don't worry. I will tell her. When the time comes”, Luke assured. He had asked Rey to wait outside for him, which by now meant she had probably had her eyes pecked out by those fat little bird-like thingies that populated the island – pretty sure they were called porgs or whatever, but he had lost interest of them once he realized they were practically inedible. Even more so than Han’s cooking, and that was saying a lot.

No wonder Lando _and_ Leia had divorced him.

Luke’s face lit up when R2D2 wheeled in. “Hey you! Where have you been?”

R2 beeped, jumping up and down.

“Hey now! Watch the tone!” he hassled. The droid beeped angrily and ran off, chasing after Rey.

“Can we start the training now?” she asked, when they popped back out. She had managed to fend off the birds, which was more than Luke could say for his first experiences there.

“First we eat. Then you sleep. We start tomorrow morning.”

“It’s still early!”

“The days end quickly and the nights last long here. Trust me”, Luke insisted.

He led them to his hut, not much further away from where the Falcon was parked. There seemed to be an entire village hidden behind the rocky mountains of Ahch-To, though they were populated by toad-like creatures dressed in white garments who seemed none too pleased to see Luke returning – especially not with company.

Rey and Chewie were each given their own huts, even if they had insisted on sleeping on the Falcon. It was night before they had even realized time had passed.

“We start tomorrow, on the dot”, Luke reminded, before Rey sealed off her hut.

She thought she wouldn’t be able to sleep with worry – there were so many things she wanted to ask him, so many questions she had gathered up through the years, that the thought of relaxing for five minutes when she was so close to the truth was maddening. Yet, when she laid her head on the pillow, Rey fell asleep in a matter of seconds.

And the time it took her to fall asleep was, apparently, time enough for the tiny planet to spin around its red sun; to her, five minutes had been the time between closing her eyes and opening them again, now to see Skywalker standing over her, poking her with a stick.

“Time to train”, he said, eagerly.

“It’s already morning?” she said, rubbing her eyes open.

“Yes, and we already losing daylight. Come on!”

It was raining outside, but it didn’t seem to faze Luke. He threw her a poncho and marched under the rain anyway.

What was he saying about daylight? She could barely see the sun!

“That has never stopped me”, he said, jogging upwards. Rey followed him up the mountain, through the broken steps that he kept climbing up anyway.

She scrapped her knees a half-dozen times, but pushed forward, equilibrating herself on the fine line of rocks over the crashing waves that seemed to compose most of the coast of the island. Luke led her to the edge of a cliff, with no bridge to cross through. He looked back, winked at her and jumped, and for a moment she feared he had dived to his death; but he arrived on the other side, even if hard on his knees.

“Your turn!” he shouted, over the cliff.

“Are you kidding? I can’t do that!”

“Can’t or won’t?”

“Is there a difference?!”

“Do or do not, Rey! There is no try!”

She looked at the cliff, and then back at him, who had opened his arms wide for her. If she jumped and fell, either she would get crushed by the rocks, or she would get drowned by the waves. If she didn't jump, then what was the point of coming all that way?

Taking a deep breathe, she pulled back, before jumping forward. The world stopped for a second, held still, like the space between heartbeats.

And then, safe and sound, she was there, on the other side.

“You made it”, he said.

“I made it”, she answered, raising her head high.

“Good. Now your training starts.”

“Wait, this isn’t part of my training?!”

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

“So all of this happened while I was asleep...” Finn said, chewing the insides of his cheekbones. Sitting on the harbor, Poe had been clueing Finn in on what had happened the past so or so months, although much of it was still hard to swallow.

“Yep”, Poe answered. “Ah! And! I fixed your jacket! Hold on!”

He jumped back on his feet, running to his X-Wing. Minutes later, he’d return, Finn’s – or, well, his’ – jacket at hand. He hadn’t stitched it back together as much as he had...stapled it? Kinda? Sorta? But it was Altruvian leather, it wasn’t easy to sew on it.

It didn’t matter. It was perfect.

“How is your wound?” Poe asked, fixing the collar of it, once Finn had put it on.

“It’s...better. I guess. I don’t know. It’s kind of...numb, I think?” he reached for it, brushed his fingers over the place where the lightsaber had touched. General Organa had told him they had done everything they could, but the scar would remain. She hadn’t said it out loud, but he knew he should be lucky it hadn't been worse.

He was happy to know Rey had split Kylo Ren’s face open, though. A small victory among other, bigger, more important victories.

 _Now he has a reason to wear that ugly ass helmet_ , he thought to himself.

His thoughts wondered from Ren to the First Order, asking himself how many others like Paige and Rose had left their stations once they knew they could – that they had the option, like he had. Were there many of those in that same station? Stormtroopers, technicians, officers; all who had been taken out of their homes, ripped from their families before they could even have memories of them, to become another clog in the machine that was the First Order?

He wondered, also, how many more would, and if there was someone waiting to extend them a way out like Poe had.

Although, now that he thought about it, wasn’t it the other way around? Wasn’t he the one taking flyboy’s ass out of the line? He should’ve gotten a medal for that.

Maybe he should talk to General Organa about it...

Thoughts of medals and honor were soon pushed out of his mind however, as the entire base went into code red; alarms blaring from all sides, people running into each other screaming. Finn and Poe hurried to the command center, to find General Organa, Admiral Ackbar, Senator Sloane and the rest of the leadership available gathered around the holotable, where they could see a fleet parked outside the planet.

“They shouldn’t be here”, Poe said, wide-eyed. “How did they manage to catch our trail so fast? Did they track us through lightspeed?”

“They would’ve been here faster”, General Organa countered. In that moment, she didn’t say it, but something in her eyes spoke out what none of them would admit: someone in the base had sold them out.

Now dozens of ships were lined up around Crait, including the _Supremacy_ , Supreme Leader Snoke’s own Star Dreadnought. _Didn’t we just get rid of one of these things?_ Poe thought to himself, digging his nails on the table.

But that wasn’t even the worse of it yet.

“They are jamming our signals”, Connix said, from the computers. “We can’t get any messages in or out.”

“What about the shields?” General Organa asked. “Can they withstand an attack?”

“As they are, they can hold out for two, maybe three days. More if we shift to full power, but we can't black out the medbay.”

“Why? Why not longer?” Senator Sloane inquired.

“We were supposed to get a fuel refill in the new few days, but if the planet is under siege...”

“What about our ships?” Ackbar asked.

“We don’t have enough manpower to fight off that level of offence”, Poe butted in. “And if we tried to escape –”

“We would get decimated”, Leia concluded.

“So what, we are trapped in here?” Ava turned to her, nervously. “Is this the rescue you had in mind?”

“We are doing the best we can, Senator. But hope is not lost yet.”

“Are you still counting on Master Skywalker returning? There hasn’t been a sighting of him in years.”

“Yes”, Leia said, and her attention turned to Finn. “But I also have a plan B.”

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

“Wait. _We_ are plan B?” Finn said, still a little confused.

Leia had taken both he and Poe aside, to a secluded area – with the threat of a possible leak among their ranks, they had to be extra-careful.

“Yes, you two”, she repeated. “ _If_ you want the task.”

“...Of course we do. But why?”

“Because you two are smart and resourceful and I trust you both can find yourselves out of a tricky situation. Also, you two managed to escape past a First Order attack before, I’m hoping you can do it again.”

“What do you want us to do, General?” Poe asked, shifting on his feet.

“I need you to find me a woman.”

“You mean, like –”

Leia rolled eyes. “ _Not_ like that, Dameron. Focus. Your mission is to find a woman called Amilyn Holdo. She is one of our Vice-Admirals. Her fleet is big enough to take on the one outside and buy us enough time to figure out our next move.”

“Shouldn’t we just try to contact as many people as we can once we are out of their comm jam?” Finn asked.

“Do that, but we also need the confirmation that someone is coming for us, not just hope someone might hear our signal. That’s why we need Amilyn”, she insisted. “I’ve put the coordinates on your droid–” as if on cue, BB-8 rolled in, and if a droid could look full of itself, that was exactly how BB-8 was. “But I believe her last known location was in Canto Bight.”

Poe groaned. “Oh, no.”

“What? Where is that?” Finn asked, looking from one to the other.

“Canto Bight is a casino planet in the Outer Rims”, he explained. “At least it’s a front for one.”

“It’s actually a neutral zone”, General Organa clarified. “It’s where First Order and Resistance can find dealers without the risk of facing repercussions.”

Finn's eyes grew bigger. “Oh, I know where it is! I mean – I mean – I never went there or anything, but I was supposed to go, once – I mean, I wasn’t _supposed_ to go because the other troopers didn’t invite me, but –”

“Get to the point, Finn”, Leia hurried.

“Well, basically, it’s a place where troopers can go to...hm....unwind? If that’s the word?”

Poe chocked on his tongue. “You mean to f–”

“Yes, Poe, we understand what he means”, Leia interrupted. “Now, the only way to reach the planet is if you jump to lightspeed, and the only way to jump to lightspeed is if you go through the barricade. And going through the barricade is stupid – you would be killed before you had the chance to cross the shields.”

“You’re underestimating my flying abilities, General”, Poe argued, almost offended.

“I’m not. I’ve seen you flying, Poe. But – there is an alternative. If you circumvent the planet, there is a meteor field not far. If you get there, you can jump to lightspeed before they catch you. It’s hard to navigate, but again – I’ve seen you flying, Dameron.”

Now _that_ was a compliment.

While Poe went ahead to prepare the ship for their departure – with BB-8 fast on his trail – Leia stayed behind with Finn. She appeared...hesitant, almost.

“I want you to take something with you, Finn”, she said, after a while.

“A message?” he asked.

“No. Something for yourself.”

From one of the pockets in her coat, she took a cylindrical metal box, a little bit bigger than Finn’s own hand. It was sealed in one end, but whatever was inside was light as a feather. He took it from her, pressing the box against his chest.

“Use it when you need it most”, she said, “And be careful.”

“I will”, he assured, even though he had no idea what it was.

Poe returned a few moments afterwards, with BB-8 loudly beeping in front of him.

“One thing before you go”, she said, as they headed to the shuttle. “Stay in line while there. The casino may be a neutral zone, but the people there _aren’t_. They will find the slightest reason to arrest you, and then either auction you as a slave or sell you out to your enemies. Don’t forget that.”

“We won’t”, Poe assured. He seemed...chipper than what you would expect a guy to be considering he was about to enter an asteroid field.

That worried Leia more than the travel itself. “What is it, Poe?”

“Nothing! Nothing! Is just... is Canto Bight still Hutt property?” he asked, with a nose wrinkle.

He was counting on Finn having a low knowledge of galaxy mafia, so he could ask exactly what he asked next. “What’s a Hutt?”

Poe’s eyes were shining with stars. “That! Is an excellent question!”

Leia sighed. “I’m not going to tell the story, Poe”, she said, rubbing her temple. “We don’t have time for this. You need to get going.”

“You’re right, you're right, Huttslayer – I mean! I mean – General Organa! General Organa! I’m sorry –”

“Just go already! And may the Force be with you.”

Finn pulled Poe towards the escape pods, still a little lost in the whole thing. “I thought you had clued me in on everything.”

“Oh no, buddy,” he said, wrapping an arm around Finn’s shoulders. “That’s a whole ‘nother story...”

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

Back at the command center, Leia and Gial – the only other to know about the plans – watched as the shuttle was launched, headed into the asteroid belt.

“Why those two, General? Why choose them exactly?” he asked.

“Because they have a spark, Admiral,” she answered, chewing on the tip of a pen. “That will light a fire inside every person who has ever thought about rebelling. If we don't make it out of here today, we’ll need people like them leading the way.”

“What about Master Skywalker? The force-sensitive girl? Wasn’t she our hope?”

“Yes, but there is another”, Leia said, and for the first time in a while she smiled, watching as the dot moved further and further away from the map. “I didn’t notice at first, since they arrived together, and then he was in a coma, but when he woke up... I felt it. Besides, not all force sensitives become Jedi.”

She threw the pen upwards, but instead it spun around its own axis in slow motion, drawing perfect circles around itself, until it fell back on her hand.

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

While the Resistance’s plan was good enough, their effort did not go unnoticed by the First Order. As soon as the shuttle sped towards the asteroid field, one of the technicians hurried to inform General Hux of it.

“How many people on board?” he asked, marching down the corridors of the _Supremacy_.

“Only two, sir. Should we send someone to track them?” the technician asked, nervously.

“No, leave it. Probably just deserters, anyway”, Hux scoffed. “But make sure no other pass through. We don’t want any trying to sneak in through the backdoor.”

He dismissed the subordinate with a gesture, stopping in front of a heavily sealed door. On the other side of it, he could hear grunts and groans and screeches; blades clashing against each other, bodies slamming against the wall. Sometimes he wished someone would just slice his head off of his shoulders and be done with it, but there had been no such luck so far.

Hux opened the door to the training station, in time to see Kylo Ren’s lightsaber crash against Yles Ren’s. Kylo, then, took the opportunity to shove her away with his free hand.

“Pathetic”, he spit out, from his helmet. “I need a better sparring partner.”

“Perhaps we could find you that girl”, Hux mocked, drawing attention to himself. “What was her name? Something with an R –”

“What. Do. You. Want?” Kylo asked, turning off his saber.

“Supreme Leader Snoke would like to have a word with you, once you’re done...playing around.”

“Training”, he corrected, harshly.

“That’s one way to call it”, Hux said, casting his eyes to the woman on the floor.

Kylo moved past him, shoving him aside with a wave of his hand. His mood had gotten worse over the past months – not only the scar across his face had proven itself almost impossible to fix, despite all the technology in their favor, but there was also still no trace of the girl who had beaten him in combat. The one who carried his grandfather’s – _his’_ – lightsaber. He had himself gone after her and the defective stormtrooper, searching every corner of the galaxy for a hint of where they were, but he had come up empty.

He needed to find them. He needed to make _examples_ of them. Her to show that those strong with the force had to bend to his will, or otherwise get crushed, and him, to snuff out any fire of rebellion among stormtrooper ranks, before things got worse. He wanted to choke the life out of both of them with his bare hands if possible.

Hers, especially.

There was something about that girl that had taken him completely off-guard. She had not been the awakening he had felt in Jakku, but still...there was a pull towards her. Her strength with the Force was one that could only match his own.

That was why he needed her dead.

Supreme Leader however, had...different ideas.

“Is _that_ what consumes you, what has kept you from fulfilling your training? The _girl_?” Snoke asked, when Kylo voiced his desires. Kneeled in front of the throne, he did not dare raising his head. “Of all the things – of all the power within your hands – and you worry about a nobody – a junkrat from a sand planet?”

“She is more than that.” he insisted, kneeling in front of his throne. “She is powerful with the Force.”

“And so are you!” Snoke roared, raising himself from his throne; more bone than body, a corpse held together by the will of the Force, if nothing more. “The mighty Kylo Ren! When I found you, I saw what all masters would like to see – raw, untainted power, and beyond that, something truly special...”

He approached him, so close Kylo could feel Snoke’s cold fingers touch the edge of his mask. Kylo shuddered.

“...the potential of your bloodline. A new Vader.”

Snoke took a deep, harsh breathe, pulling his chin up so Kylo was forced to look at him in the eyes. The mask meant nothing: he could still feel the burning gaze of those sunken, soulless eyes burn against his own.

“Now I fear I was mistaken”, he concluded.

“You were not –” Kylo swallowed dry, biting down his own quivering lip. “I have done everything you asked me. I have gone through all your tests. I have renounced the light. I have –”

“Killed your own father, yes. I am aware”, Snoke scoffed, pulling his hand away. “And look at the strain it has taken on you. It’s tearing you apart at the seams. You’re unbalanced! Weak!”

“I AM NOT WEAK!” Kylo snarled, standing up. That was his mistake.

A bolt of electricity ran through his body, knocking him several feet behind. The praetorian guard had raised their weapons, but Snoke had not had to even lift a finger.

“You _are_ weak. But I will make you strong again. I will show you the final step of your training. The true meaning of power. And then...”

Kylo crawled back towards the throne; he could feel the blood began to leak through his wound, soaking his mask, but he dared not remove it.

“Only then you will be able to wipe out the last of the Jedi that still stand in our way.”

And, for the first time, in a way that would surely haunt his nightmares, Kylo saw Snoke...smile.

“Whatever you say, I will do it”, Kylo spat out.

That was exactly what Snoke wanted to hear.

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

**AHCH-TO, WEEKS INTO REY'S TRAINING.**

“Why do I need to do all of this?” Rey asked, already at the brick of exhaustion. She fell to her knees, dropping the pile of rocks Luke had made her carry up the hill, back and then up again.

“It’s part of your training”, he said, sitting over a flat rock, his legs and arms crossed.

“How is this going to help me move stuff with my mind?!”

“Move stuff – being a Jedi is more than just moving stuff with your mind, you know!”

“Yeah, but I was a scavenger!” she dragged herself away from the rocks, prostrating herself in front of Skywalker. “I know how to fight – I even know how to fight with a lightsaber. I know how far my body can go.”

“But being a Jedi is more than just pushing the limits of your body, young padawan. It’s about pushing the limits of your mind”, he said, connecting the tip of his fingers together. “It’s surviving, despite all odds.”

 _That’s what I’ve already been doing!_ she thought to herself, angrily. He sensed that; he, more than anyone else, could understand why she wasn’t too fond of dragging herself through swamps, even if not literal ones in her case.

Her mind wasn’t on fighting and exercising, either body or mind, but there was a road they had to be taken before they got to where she wanted to be – even if she didn’t know that yet.

“What do I need to do, then?” she asked, begrudgingly.

“Let go of your senses”, he said, closing his eyes. “Feel past your touch, see past your eyes, hear past your ears. The universe is much bigger than what lays under your touch.”

“How do I do that?”

"Look past the pain. The aching. The hurt. Reach into the unknown, and above all else...” he placed three fingers over her forehead. “Be thankful.”

“For what?”

“For me making you carry rocks instead of me down this mountain, like my master did.”

She frowned. “Wasn't your master a rat, from what I heard?”

“He was more like a monkey, but we don’t call him that. He’s always listening. Especially in the most inconvenient times.”

“How inconvenient?”

Luke's face went very red. “ _Very_ inconvenient.”

She felt a chill up her spine that told her it was best if she didn’t ask further.

At least not on this subject.

She sat up properly, mimicking Luke’s pose. He closed his eyes again; his greying hair highlighted under the orange light of the setting suns, a – perhaps almost cruel – reminder of the passing of times. Still, when she closed her eyes, it was not an old face she saw, but a jovial, wrinkle-less one. In her memory, or perhaps in her dreams, he was young and smiling, and he called her name softly, distantly, fading.

“Master Skywalker”, she said, swallowing the nod in her throat. “When will you start answering my questions? You said you would, but it has been three weeks–”

“Ask me”, he said, his voice barely a whisper.

“You mean – now?”

“Yes. Ask me.”

It was as if every question she had ever had came flooding out through her brain, in such a torrent that she found herself unable to even come up with a single one of them.

“Oh, uh, fine – hm. Why are you here? Why...why hide in this place? Why not rejoin the Resistance? We need you.”

“I’m not hiding. Although I guess that is what it looks like for people out there”, he chuckled.

“O...kay”, she said, and it didn’t really answer her question, but she feared he would not answer further if she pressed on.

He had sensed that, too. “This island”, he continued. “Is the birthplace of the first Force-sensitive people; those who would someday become the first Jedi. Over there”, he pointed to his back, to the peak of the highest mountain. “There is a door. Not a physical door, more like a...spiritual gateway. It leads to a place called Mortis. Some claim it is the origin of the Force, or the place where Force-sensitive people go when they die. It is a realm outside of the universe as we know it, that works in a way we don’t even understand it yet.”

Her eyes opened wide. “Have you gone there?”

“Yes.”

“Can _I_ go there?”

“I would not advise you to do so. Not now, at least. Not so soon.”

She pouted. “Why not?”

“Like I said, it works in a way we don’t even understand yet. Time passes differently, and what we believe to be true may be a trick – or vice-versa. It would not answer any questions, only raise more of them.”

“So you are here...as its guardian?”

“In a way. In a way, it guards me.”

Rey looked up. Above, with a peak that almost brushed into the clouds, the mountain rose supreme. She felt a sudden pull towards it; a call that frightened and compelled her.

A call she was not sure if she was willing to answer.

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

“Wait, so she killed him? With her bare hands?” Finn asked, squinting.

“No, no, no. Not with her bare hands! Hutts are HUGE! She used chains”, Poe explained. They had crossed the asteroid belt successfully – no signs of any ships trying to track them – and jumped to lightspeed, following BB-8’s coordinates. “And she basically freed all these people. Master Skywalker and General Solo were there, of course, but she was the one to do it. That’s why people call her Huttslayer. I mean, it doesn’t overshadow her parentage or anything, but...”

“The fact that her dad is Darth Vader?” Finn had heard everything there was to know about Vader during his indoctrination – except for the part where he chose to turn on the Emperor, but that much was expected.

He remembered how Kylo Ren had sent troopers to scan every inch of the galaxy searching for the stupid charred helmet he kept on his chambers – not because it was a ridiculously difficult thing to find, but because one of men in his group, Slip, had almost got his hands on it, before he ruined the mission (as he was prone to do). He was still not entirely sure how Kylo had gotten his hands on it in the end.

He also didn't even want to think about the things he had probably been doing to said helmet.

“Her _dad_ is Bail Organa”, Poe corrected, gripping the control of the ship. “Her biological donor is Vader.”

“Is there a difference?”

“I mean...yeah. Like...family is the people you love, and the people that love you. For me, it's my mom and dad, and the Black Squadron, and...” he looked over at Finn for a moment, biting down his lower lip. “And that may be different for...for other people.”

Finn may not have caught his stare, as his attention drifted out of the window, watching the ship fly through lightspeed. He remembered doing that once before: years ago, during his early training, he had caught himself staring outside of a window; he and his team were returning from training where he'd been berated by Phasma for not completing the mission. They were meant to identify and weed out rebels, but at each level more civilians had gotten in the way, to a point where it was impossible to discern who they were meant to be shooting at. He had stopped before shooting a father protecting her two children. Explaining to his superior while he felt it was wrong to shoot civilians had not gone too well.

He had wondered, on the way back to his bunker, if he still had family out there. There were no memories of them on him, and the First Order wasn’t exactly too keen on keeping registry of them. He wasn’t going to ask, either; one of his fellow trooper had, and Hux had only said all of them had been ‘volunteered’ by their parents, and then said trooper had never been seen again.

Then again, it was a big galaxy. He may have just been transferred.

But probably not.

“You alright, buddy?” Poe asked, with a hand on his shoulder.

Finn blinked, back to reality. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Thinking about Rey?” he asked, sucking in his teeth. “She could be your new family.”

“Don’t Jedi take a celibacy vow?”

“I didn’t.”

“What?”

“Nothing, never mind. We’re here.”

They reached the other end of the jump, and soon Cantonica came into view. It was a small planet, smaller than Crait even; most if it was just water, except little patches of land here and there. One, specifically, was covered in lights so bright they could be seen from outer space. That seemed to be their destination.

“Remember what General Organa told us”, Poe said, as they landed on the outskirts of the city. “Try to keep a low profile.”

Finn realized quickly he was talking to the droid, not to him. BB-8 beeped offended.

“Yeah, I know it was just one time, BB, but once was enough”, Poe hassled. “If you see a slot machine, go the other way.”

“What did it do?” Finn asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Let's just say we are banned from Ahakista until further notice”, Poe answered, with a grimace. They used the cover of the night to run through the grass and reach the lower levels of the city. That area was apparently the only part of town who was not booming with light, it was mostly filled out by one-room apartment compounds, ugly, greyish and pauper.

Finn stopped them before they went any further.

“We are not supposed to drag attention to ourselves, right?” he asked.

“That’s right.”

“But we are dressed in Resistance uniforms!”

“And we are looking for a Resistance official”, Poe reminded, taking a step forth. Finn pulled him back.

“But the First Order people there don’t need to know that! If they see us they can tag us, and then what is the point of going out for help if we just bring more people after us?”

Poe squinted. Part of him wanted to admit there was a ridiculously funny irony in that, but that part also knew that there would be a 100% chance if they did it they would end up dead.

“What do you suggest, then?” he asked.

Finn pointed to some of the compounds. There were casino uniforms drying up on clotheslines not far from where they were. They looked at each other and shrugged. What was the worst that could happen?

They grabbed the first pieces they found, hiding in the bushes to change. Each tried not to look at the other, but neither was very subtle about it.

Finn put the jacket over his outfit – “What? It’s cold!” – before they headed into the city.

There was a drastic change of look the further upwards they went. The sidewalks became more even; there was far less trash in the streets; and brighter lights cast away any shadows; there were no beggars in corners, clutching to their babies while asking for a spare change. No, the higher levels of the city were glooming and booming and the people with champagne glasses in their hands never bothered to cast their eyes down to the people beneath them. They were there, each with jewelry more expensive than the other, wasting away their fortune in gambling tables and animal races.

Poe stopped them before they got into the Canto Casino. “Let’s find Vice-Admiral Holdo and get out of here real quickly. If we spread out, maybe we can cover more ground. If one of us meets her, give the message, then regroup at one of the balconies.”

“Sure. Sure. Sure. Fair plan. But what does she look like?” Finn asked.

They kneeled down, so BB-8 could project the files General Organa had entrusted them. The woman in the hologram was tall, almost gangling; she had bright-pink spiked hair, spiraled face tattoos around her eyes and cheeks, and an outrageously colorful make-up. Her medals were decorated on the black leather jacket she was wearing, and each of the three pairs of rings on her ears was of a different color. She didn’t look like the image of a rebellion leadership, but she sure looked like she liked to rebel.

“Not a hard face to miss”, Poe said, adjusting his collar. “Good luck.”

The three of them spread out, each heading in a different direction. Poe was more direct to the point: he scanned around faces, attempting to act casual as he tried to spot any signs of Amilyn Holdo amidst the sea of heads, each more unconventional than the other. There were at least three other women, two men and gelatinous being with pink hair, but none of them matched her traits. BB-8 wasn’t doing much better either; it had tried to keep a distance from the slot machines, but the more it wandered around, the more people thought _it_ was a slot machine, which just resulted on a whole lot of people shoving coins where coins were not supposed to go.

And Finn...

Well. Finn wasn’t doing any good, but it had much to do with the fact that he wasn’t properly looking. He was fascinated – mesmerized – by everything, wandering around with his mouth agape, enchanted by the glamour that oozed from the fake laughter to the expensive drinks. There was a...freedom in there that he wasn’t used to. People were drinking as much as they wanted! Eating as much as they wanted! Playing and enjoying themselves without the fear of punishment for being out of line. Hell, odds were none of them had ever had to worry about scrubbing toilets or shooting civilians or fearing about their ships being blown out of the sky.

Was that was it was like to not live in the line of fire?

He wandered from table to table, admiring people play, screaming alongside them when they lost, cheering when they won. He found himself enthralled by the sight of the singer in the stage, who seemed to be made of different-colored shards of glass glued together, reflecting light.

Luckily, he managed to de-glue his eyes in time to see Poe was already waiting for him in the balcony. And he didn’t look happy.

“Did you find her?” he asked.

“No, but this place is –”

“A hellhole.”

“-amazing! No wonder Nines wanted to come here all the time. Wait, what? Do you mean a hellhole? It’s incredible! Look at all those people! Why do you hate it so much?”

“Because I used to think like you”, Poe said, leaning against the balcony. “The first few times I came here. Because we only ever look at the lights, but never at the shadows.”

“You mean the people in the slums?”

“Also. But look down there”, he said, turning to the racetrack below them. There was a race going on, with people cheering in the bleachers – but that wasn’t what Poe was pointing at.

Finn took the binoculars nearby for a closer look: first at the fathiers, horse-like animals with long ears and curve snouts, electrocuted into keeping moving by their jockeys, until the skin around their necks was raw and bleeding; then at the caretakers, children being shoved around and whipped by men three times their size, when their animals refused to submit. He pulled away, just as a little boy was about to suffer such fate, disgusted by what he’d seen.

The wound on his back ached as though it was him on the other end of that whip. He had never been at the end of any of Phasma’s - or Hux’s or Kylo’s – physical outings, but he had seen the wounds on Slip enough times to know they were not pleasant.

“These people here – they don’t care about anything. About the Resistance. About the First Order”, Poe said, with disgust. “They have enough money to improve the lives of thousands of planets out there, but they throw it away like it means nothing to them, because they can always make more. That is why there is war after war after war: because people like these here are willing to sell out their own souls to cash in an extra billion credits by selling weapons or making droids or producing clones or – or whatever else they can come up with. This whole beautiful town is built on nothing but the blood of innocent people, and people down there are just gonna keep getting – HOLY SHIT, IS THAT HER?"

Poe chocked on his own half-finished speech. Down there by the bleachers, he caught a glimpse of a bright-pink hair that very much matched the one in the hologram.

“Come on, we gotta go!” Finn said, pulling him by the arm.

When they turned around, however, it was to see that they were not alone in the balcony anymore. Three of the casino’s armed guards were standing there, thick as brick houses, with two men in plain clothes pointing aggressively at Finn and Poe.

“Those two!” they said. “Those two stole our uniforms!”

Poe and Finn looked at each other for a moment and cringed.

That. _That_ was the worst that could happen.

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

It was a good thing that the underground bunker in Crait didn’t have any windows, so the people hiding there could not see the First Order fleet waiting for them outside, and the distance allowed them not to hear when their cannons fired against the first shields around the planet.

Still, even if they did not know there was a threat hanging over their heads, the people in there _felt_ it, instinctively, like a cold grip around their throats. Rose saw it in every person that passed by her, from the way they bowed their heads or hugged themselves, as if bracing themselves for impact. General Organa had reassigned her to the medlab, to help with the growing number of people in need of care – in some people, the First Order’s bio weapons had taken longer to effect – but she would honestly had rather been anywhere else.

The most heart-breaking part was seeing people still praise their gods for being alive, even if some could never see or hear or walk properly again. All for refusing to join a war they would gain nothing from.

But those were not the only kind of faces she saw, however. Amidst the higher ranks, there was...something. Something in the way their eyes twitched and how they looked over their shoulders, almost scared that someone was listening in on their conversations. Most had kept a sizable distance from the rest of the base, choosing not to speak with the refugees, if not for General Leia’s brief assuring that everything was fine, and that there was nothing to worry about.

Except the First Order’s ships were still out there, in the sky, slowly wearing down their shields. But they didn’t need to know that just yet.

After seeing a third mother having an emotional breakdown, Rose decided it was the moment to ask. She approached General Organa, as she finished speaking with Major Ematt.

“General, I’m sorry to bother you, but – people in the medical facility are getting restless. They think there may be something going on that you are not telling us.”

“Do you think that’s the case, Ms. Tico?” she asked, once Major Ematt was out of hearing range.

“I know about the First Order outside. I may have… overheard when Finn and Poe were leaving. But people out there… they don’t. They just want to know if they are safe."

“And for now, they are", Leia assured. “In moments like this, it’s best to keep the general public in the dark, for their own safety. If we say the right thing to the wrong person, we may get ourselves in more trouble than we can imagine. I can assure you, however, that we _are_ working the best we can do fix it. As long as we are here, as long as we have each other, nothing bad will happen.”

“You’re right. Of course, you’re right. Thank you, General.”

She saluted General Organa – even though that was…weird, and she wasn’t sure why she had done it – and stepped away, trying to keep her poker face the best she could – but like her sister had told her a million times, she not very good at it. It was a nice speech, and for a very brief moment even a little uplifting, but it only served to tell Rose one thing: there was a leak in the base.

Somebody had sold them out. She was sure of that. A rat! That was why the First Order had found them so quickly.

But who could it be? Most people in the base were too busy tending to the sick and the weak, making sure they weren’t dying. Senator Sloane was sitting in the hangar doing double-duty: feeding the hungry, those who had not had a proper meal in a while, while watching over the children that surrounded her – those whose parents had not made it, or were too sick to tend to them – trying to comfort them; her assistant, huffing and puffing and groaning, had been going back and forth through the base, trying to find whatever the kids needed – blankets, water, a toy they had left somewhere – even if she looked like she’d rather be anywhere else. Pava was sitting on the floor surrounded by other pilots, scamming their money while playing cards; Commander – well, Colonel now – Dameron were off to do whatever plan General Organa had come up with. From what Rose had heard, Poe was like a second son to her, one that would not shove a laser sword through his father’s chest, so she knew he was trust-worthy. There was one face she didn’t identify.

“Where is Connix?” she asked Saile Minnau, one of the guards.

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen her”, he shrugged, before going back to polishing his blaster.

That was weird. Why would Kaydel all-hands-on-deck Connix simply disappear?

Rose sought her through the corridors of the mine, but save from the occasional crystal dog – what were these things called again? Vulpixes? Vulptures? – most people were either at the bay or the medlab. Then she heard the sound of...dripping?

She followed down the corridor, to a heavily-locked door. Well, supposedly heavily-locked door anyway; it had been hastily closed, enough to let a little light in. On the floor, Rose could see something sipping out.

Fuel.

“Oh, no”, she whispered, rushing in. Inside, one of the fuel tanks had been cracked – not enough to spill the whole thing out at once, but so that it could leak out slowly. Maybe to look like an accident?

On the floor next to it, a passed out Connix, face-first on the oil. Her head was bleeding.

Shit.

“I need a – I need assistance. Here. Now!” she shouted, pressing the panic button me of the nurses had given her, while pulling Kaydel out of the oil. “Damn it. I have a bad feeling about this.”

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

**AHCH-TO, MONTHS INTO REY’S TRAINING.**

“Why do I need this ridiculous thing over my eyes, again?” Rey asked. She was standing at the flat side of a cliff, with a double-bladed wooden staff at hand and a cloth covering her eyes. She felt stupid.

“It’s part of your training”, Luke explaining.

“I get that much. Why cover my eyes?”

“So you can learn to see.”

“But that’s –”

“ _Without_ using them”, he emphasized. She had been doing what he had asked – feeling the world without using her senses – but it was harder than she’d expected. How was she supposed to feel a rock without, you know, touching one?

Now this. Maybe next he would ask her to walk on her hands and clap at the same time.

At that point, what else was impossible?

“If you think this is awkward, imagine getting your ass handed to you an actual blind Jedi. I’m pretty sure I still owe Jarrus two hundred credits for that...”

“Right, but why not use the lightsabers? I have one and you have one –”

“-And you could slice me in half before you master how to use one without using your eyes. I only have so many hands.”

She laughed. That was a fair point.

“Now focus yourself. Focus on the Force, and your connection to it. Let’s begin.”

Rey took a deep breathe, gripping the staff tightly. ‘It’s not gonna be hard’, she thought. She could do it. She could feel him coming at her. She prepared herself –

And then he had already knocked her on her ass.

“What is that for?!” she asked, lifting the cloth up.

“You have to block me! Hurry up!” he urged.

She tried again, but again he swept her off her feet – and not in a good way.

Then he did it again. And again. And again, even before she was done standing up.

“Are you just gonna keep doing that?!” she spat out, pulling the cloth off completely.

“That is the point, isn’t it?” he said, leaning against his own staff. “Would Ben have given you the opportunity to stand up? I don’t think so.”

“Not Ben”, she corrected, bitterly. “Kylo. Ben is dead.”

“Nah. There is still light in him somewhere. There is always light, if you know where to look.”

“Not in him. I’ve seen it.” She stood up again, pulling down the cloth. “There is nothing good in him anymore. He’s a monster.”

“If he is, then I’m the one who made him”, he said, and charged at her – but this time, Rey blocked him.

Maybe it was the anger flowing through her body, but she had felt him coming. She stood her ground firmly and raised her staff, in time to block his attack.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“I was the one who drove him into joining the dark side. I made Kylo Ren.”

He came at her again, but she blocked him, returning the blow. Their staffs clashed and they backed away.

“I heard the stories about you. You could never do that.”

“Not all the stories are true.”

“Then tell me. Tell me what happened.”

She swung the staff at him and he blocked it with both hands, the pushing her back. Skywalker gritted his teeth. “It was after the fall of the Empire. I decided to...to gather all the force sensitive people I could find, and train them. Restart the Jedi Order. One of the people that found me was a man called Ren Snoke.”

“Supreme Leader”, she whispered, almost scared he could hear her.

“He did not have that moniker back then. When I met him, he was several years my senior, but when I touched his mind for the first time, he felt...much, much older. At the time, I dismissed it as me being paranoid. I was wrong.”

Their staffs clashed, the noise of the wood hitting each other echoing on the empty valley. Not far from there, R2D2 was chasing porgs away, try to fry them while Chewbacca watched in amusement.

Luke swung the staff under her legs, but she jumped in time, and when he went up, she dodged, spinning around and kicking him in the chest instead. “What did you do?” she asked, missing the amused face he made as he pulled himself upwards.

“I let him teach alongside me, at least until I realized our interests did not align. He was...a Centrist, constantly preaching about what the Empire had done wrong, and how it could be fixed under the right management. Under the right order.”

“The First Order.”

“It was being born around that same time, so I when cut ties with him, it was natural that he would seek them out. I didn’t think much of it, I didn’t keep tabs on him. I should have. That was my mistake.”

“What happened?”

He paused, resting against his staff. When he didn't answer, Rey pulled the cloth off, worried he had decided to stop speaking again.

“I can’t tell you”, Luke said, looking back to the peak of the mountain behind them. “But I can show you.”

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

The climbing up the mountain was a slow and torturous process – even more so for Rey, whose eagerness to know more could not have been more transparent. Had it been up to her, she would have climbed the mountain at the speed of light but, as Master Skywalker had been teaching her, patience was a virtue – even if it sometimes felt more like a vice.

At the top of the mountain, there was an opening, a crack leading to a dark and rocky corridor that went on and on ‘till they could not see the light at the entrance.

“Are we there yet?” she asked, ignoring the shivering up and down her spine.

“Do you want to go back? We still can.”

“No. No. I need to know more. All.”

The corridor opened into a clearing, a circular room lit only by an unseen light coming from another crack at its far end. On the floor, carved on the room, inscriptions older than most languages, and the image of a being split in half, its left side covered in darkness and the right side bathed in light.

“What do you see in these inscriptions?” Luke asked.

“I don’t – I can’t understand it.”

“You can. Read them, not with your eyes, but with the feelings.”

She clenched her fist, trying to see past what the words told her. It was like trying to open a door with the wrong key.

“Emotion, yet peace”, she said, at last. “Ignorance, yet knowledge. Passion, yet serenity. Chaos, yet harmony.”

“Death, yet the Force. And the Force will set me free”, Luke concluded. “The Jedi mantra. The original, as it should be.”

She took a step forth, towards the light source, but he didn’t move. He seemed...hesitant.

“Time passes differently there”, he explained. “Sometimes what feel like days are just seconds out here, but sometimes a single moment there can be...hours, days, months, years even, here. I can’t be sure of when we will be back.”

Rey understood what he meant. What if they returned too late to help the Resistance? Was that a risk they were willing to take? “Is that why you have been away for so long?”

“A realization I made too late.”

She knew the Resistance was counting on her – on them – but she also knew it was something she had to do; for herself, for the future. “Let’s do it.”

Luke took her hand, and they walked towards the source of the light, letting it engulf them. On the other side, they stepped into a large field of yellow grass, under a sky that was purple at first, then pink, then blue. Ahead, mountains of strange shapes, with even stranger constructs built upon them, and glowing trees with no fruit.

But they were not meant to go that far.

They sat on the grass, next to the exit – a door that stood without hinges, with no walls to hoist it up. Luke crossed his legs, stretching his hands out to her. “Here, we’ll be able to see the past, so we can understand the future”, he said. “Are you ready for it? Shall we begin?”

She wasn’t, but that wasn't gonna stop her.

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

“What is this place?” Kylo asked, when the praetorian guard moved back and the thick iron door closed behind him. Snoke had instructed him to go to the ends of the ship, where he had never wandered before; into a dark room whose shape he couldn’t even discern, as it was covered in dozens of full-body mirrors.

To his surprise, however, he could not see his reflection in any of them.

“This”, Snoke’s voice said, and he couldn't tell if it was coming from the room or inside his own head. “Is the last test. If you pass, you will become stronger, ready for the next level. If you fail...”

“What if I fail?” he asked, grabbing his lightsaber.

“You will not be my first apprentice to not walk out of here”, the voice said, with a chuckle.

He moved deeper in, until he was in the middle of the circle of mirrors. “What do I have to do?”

“Face your anger. Face your fears.”

“I don’t _fear_ anything!” he spat out.

“No? Is that why you hesitated to kill Han Solo?” Snoke mocked. To his left, an image came into one of the mirrors – his father, with a hole on his chest.

“But I _killed_ him! I did as I was told.”

“That you did”, he said, and the mirror shattered into a million pieces. “But what of your mother? Your uncle? Your grandparents? The ones who love you?”

More images. More people. Leia – Luke – Chewbacca – Bail and Breha Organa, whose images he had seen so many times, pictures and holograms and tears that his mother had tried to hide away; Padmé Amidala, whose life had been given to the greater good; Vader – no, not Vader, not yet. Anakin, as he was before the dark side, when he was still weak.

Weak. Weak. _Weak_.

Turning his saber on, he smashed them, slashed them, cut and destroyed their faces until there was nothing left but the broken remnants. Until there was one mirror left.

“What about the girl?” Snoke taunted, and she came into view, fury boiling in her veins, his grandfather's lightsaber at hand. “I see your feelings for her. You cannot hide yourself from me.”

“I will kill her. When the time comes. I will kill all of them”, he insisted. But he did not shatter the mirror.

Snoke laughed. “Prove it.”

“How?”

The glass shards around him were raised off of the ground, flying to one another into a cluster; spinning and swirling and changing, remolding themselves into a brand new form.

His own.

Younger – still with the green lightsaber, before he left his uncle, before he – before he took one the mask.

Ben Organa.

“Kill the past. Kill the boy. Free yourself from the burden of your feelings. Kill the light.”

Kylo shifted on his feet.

Then he charged at it.

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

“She will be fine”, Doctor Kalonia assured the group of people surrounding Kaydel’s bed in the medlab. Leia, several other Resistance personnel, C-3PO and Senator Sloane were watching over Connix, while Rose stayed at her bedside, holding her hand. “It was a minor concussion at best. She will be awake in a few minutes.”

“See, Threepio? I told you were overreacting”, Leia said, side-eyeing the droid, who had...made a fuzz, for lack of better word, as soon as the news of the lieutenant’s assault had reached the control room.

Not that the others were not worried about it. Not only did that cement the fact that there was a spy amidst their ranks, it made it even more difficult to identify the culprit, as more and more people became aware of what was going on.

Senator Sloane’s influence on her people had kept them from going onto a mass-hysteria state, but if the leadership didn’t disclosure a solution soon enough, that wouldn’t last.

Except if they _did_ disclosure anything, wouldn't that just reveal it to the spy?

So that was a kind of a rock-hard place situation.

That was why all their hopes were on Connix at least having a clue of who was responsible. They waited, holding their breath, as she came back to her senses, blinking a little uneasily at being the sudden focus of attention.

“You alright?” Rose asked, breaking the tension.

“Yeah, my...head hurts”, Kaydel said, touching the back of her neck. “What is going on?”

“Do you remember what happened to you?” Leia asked.

“I...yes. I went to the bathroom, ‘cause I wasn't feel very well, I don’t think the stuff in the cans are actually recent –”

“More recently, Connix”, Leia urged.

“– And when I went back to my post I noticed that someone had logged into the fuel station using my codes, which I thought was weird, but maybe just a glitch in the system, ‘cause of the blockage, right? Until I realized I _didn’t_ have my codes with me, so I – I went to check it out.”

“Why not tell anyone what was happening first?” General Organa asked.

Connix’s cheeks turned pink. “I didn't want to seem incompetent, General. I thought I could solve it on my own. But when I got there, the door was open and someone had made a hole on one of the tanks, and it was leaking. It didn’t look like an accident. Before I could radio anyone about it, I was hit in the head. Guess that’s when I passed out.”

“So you were hit from the back, and you didn’t see by whom? A strange coincidence”, Senator Sloane said, scratching her chin.

“What do you mean, Senator?” Leia asked.

“Nothing, but we must admit it was a coincidence that Lieutenant Connix did not see her assailant, and Ms. Tico was conveniently there to rescue her”, the Senator said, with a crooked eyebrow.

Rose got up on her feet. “What are you suggesting, Senator? That I would –”

“Well, you _were_ part of the First Order until recently, were you not?” Ava said, folding her arms.

“Yes! And I _defected_! And so did my sister, who _died_ – who _killed herself_ , blew herself to death to save you!”

That last piece of information took the Senator by surprise. “I – I’m sorry, I – I didn’t – I wasn’t informed of –”

“And – and – and honestly, Senator”, she continued, a white hot rage burning inside of her – coming not from the accusatory words of Sloane, but from much deeper than that. Anger at the war. At all the misery people had to go through – the sacrifices they had to make. “Isn’t _your mother_ a Grand Admiral in the First Order? Who are _you_ to point a finger?”

“I haven’t spoken to my mother in over a decade, you can’t –”

“Can’t I? I mean. How can we know for sure? How can any of us know?”

“I think you are a little out of line, Ms. Rose”, C-3PO tried to intervene, but the flood of tears in Rose’s eyes could not be contained.

“And if we are digging into the past – and I’m sorry to do this, I’m really sorry – but our leader is the daughter of Darth Vader!”

“She is right”, General Organa said, though anyone could see the way her jaw had clenched. _No, Bail Organa is my father. Vader is the man who took him from me_ , she thought, but that was not the moment for that. “We are all victims of the crimes of others, but they only define us if we let them. If we do, they will divide us, and we can’t afford this. Not at this moment. If we stop trusting each other, our fight might as well be lost. Now, if you excuse me, there are... arrangements that need to be made, in case... just in case.”

“How are the, uh, how are the shields holding up?” Connix asked, a little lost amidst all the finger-pointing. A former politics student in Coruscant, she had not been stolen from her family and forced into a fascist organization, nor did she know of any next of kin that had ever been involved with fascist organizations, so she was a little left out.

“We lost the outer layer, and there is only fuel left for twelve, sixteen hours at best”, Leia said, trying not to sound pessimistic. “But we will make it – we have to choose to believe we will.”

With that, General Organa left, followed by her committee and a much less optimistic threepio. Senator Sloane stayed behind, however.

“I’m sorry. For suggesting you had any part to play on what happened”, she said, her lips set into a grim line. “I was out of place, and I judged you harshly.”

“It’s alright. It’s the pressure of the situation”, Rose shrugged, even though she was still angry about it. “Like General Organa said – we have to stick together now, more than ever.”

“That is true, but I regret speaking out of turn. I’m sorry that I hurt you, and I’m sorry about your sister. Her sacrifice will not be forgotten.”

“Thank you, Senator”, Rose said, with a polite bow.

“I must go now. I must tend for my people. They had no idea the First Order was waiting outside, and I cannot imagine what they must be feeling...”

Senator Sloane exited the medlab, leaving Kaydel and Rose behind – two girls in two different states of being. Like Connix was still massaging the spot she was hit, silently blaming herself for not paying more attention, Rose was frozen in place, squinting.

“That’s right. They didn’t know”, she whisper.

“What?” Kaydel asked.

“The refugees. They didn’t know. That the First Order had put the planet under siege. They didn’t know.”

“Yeah, so?”

“So they probably didn’t know there were shields around the planet either, did they? There was no reason why they would think so, right?”

Kaydel frowned. “I... guess. What are you getting at, Tico?”

“ _Who_ were the people who knew about the shields?”

“Most of the personnel already on the base, I think. And General Organa mentioned it to Senator Sloane when she arrived, but you don't think –”

“No, not her”, Rose said, running her tongue over her gums. “But I know the spy is.”

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

“Hey, hey, hey pal! Watch the hands!” Poe shouted, as he and Finn were dragged all the way through the back of the casino, where – according to the brutes carrying them – they were about to meet their makers.

Or, at least, a guy that was really gonna rough them up.

They were pushed into a room, shoved on their knees in front of a big brunt of a...dude? Kind of? It was a ten feet tall rocky formation that vaguely resembled a person, wider than the both of them together, and it had two bald heads full of lumps of various shapes and sizes. The fella’s hand alone could crack their heads like walnuts.

The problem was when he spoke.

“Well, well, well, what do we got here?” said the left head, in the galaxy’s most high-pitched voice. Finn had to look down so he wouldn’t start laughing.

“Troublemakers!” chipped in the right head, in a slightly deeper – but nonetheless a falsetto – voice.

“What is your name?” Head One asked, grabbing Poe by the hair and pulling back, so they were eye-to-eyes.

“I’m...Kes.”

“Kes what?” asked Head Two.

“Kes...Noramed.”

“What kind of name is that?” asked both heads.

“It’s, uh, it’s very popular where I came from.”

“What about you, pretty boy?” Head One asked, turning to Finn. “Who are you?”

“I’m...”

Finn paused. That was a good question, now, wasn’t it? Who _was_ he? FN-2187? Eight-Seven? Finn? Stormtrooper? Traitor? Resistance hero? Those were all names and titles that had been given to him – forced upon him, in some cases. Only one had been offered to him, the one that marked his transition from one side to the other; one that, in some ways, had bound him to his new fate.

Was that the power that there was in a name? Should he not be the one to define who he was, rather than the other way around?

He looked at Poe for a moment, with the worried expression in his face, and he wondered – had he not been born a Dameron, would he still be at his side at that moment, or would he have been bound to a different life? If Finn himself had not been FN-2187, would he have joined the resistance? What would have been his future, if he had not spent the last twenty-three years on his knees, fearing punishment if he didn’t obey?

And, worse yet, how many others like him had been subjected to that same fate?

He held his head high, jaws clenched tight. Maybe that had not been the path the universe had chosen for him, but it was the one he had to take – even if it was to make sure nobody else would have to.

Although... that didn't really answer Head One’s question.

“Luke”, he said, throwing in the first name that came to mind. He hoped Master Skywalker didn’t mind. “Name’s Luke.”

“Luke what? Noramed?” Head Two asked, looking from one to the other. “You guys are brothers?”

“You don't _look_ like brothers”, Head One squinted.

“I’m – we – actually –” Poe stuttered, and the vein in his forehead seemed about to pop out.

“Partners”, Finn cut in, before the poor guy’s head exploded. “We are partners.”

“So you guys are svaper-milkers, huh?” Head Two laughed.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Poe cleared his throat. He was looking the other way. “It’s a – it’s a bad word.”

“You look the part for sure”, Head One joked, and he let go of Poe’s hair. “What are the likes of you doing here?”

“It’s was our honeymoon. We were celebrating”, Finn lied.

“By stealing clothes?!” Head Two asked, scratching their belly.

“We went swimming”, Poe interjected. Since the ball was already rolling, he might as well kick it around too. “And we lost our clothes. We just – we grabbed the first ones you saw.”

“That sounds like bantha shit”, said Head One. “Whatever. You are guilty, and you know what the punishment is?”

“Let me guess,” Finn started. “It’s sla–”

“Slavery!” Head Two finished, slamming their foot on the ground. Poe flinched. “And I bet you two are gonna be worth quite a dime.”

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

They were shoved around again by the guards, dragged through underground tunnels into what looked like several rows of cells. They picked an empty one and threw the duo inside, ignoring their pleas to let them go.

The cells were dirty and smelled like wet fur. Finn sat on the bed, his head between his hands, while Poe leaned against the bars, scratching his forehead.

“That was quick thinking back there”, he said. “You know, despite the fact that you took five minutes to choose a name.”

“I’m not good with names”, Finn groaned. “I didn’t grow up with a lot of them for reference.”

Poe cringed. “Sorry about that.”

“We need to get the hell out of here. Can you call BB-8?”

“I’ve been trying, but I can’t get a signal. By the Maker, I hope he is not in the slot machines again.”

“Damn it. What other options do we got? If we stay here, someone is bound to recognize us.”

“Figures. Between slavery and the First Order, I'm taking neither. But I have an idea.”

“What id–”

Poe shushed him, raising a couple of fingers against his lips. They waited, in silence, until they heard steps coming – slowly, accompanied by the sound of whistling. Soon enough, the sight of a guard approaching could be spotted down the corridor. He passed by them and towards the next cell, when Poe let out a surprised gasp.

“No way!” he said. “Is that you, Xyd?”

The guard stopped and turned around. “Are ya talkin’ t’me, pris’ner?”

“Well, yeah! Wow, Xyd, don't you remember me? Kes?”

“I dunno any Kes,” the guard said, getting closer. His name was on the tag on his chest.

“Really? Coronet City? Endor Day? Pretty sure that was not easy to forget.”

“Look, pris’ner”, the guard said, pulling off his helmet. “I dunno who ya think ya talking about, but it ain’t me.”

In the back, Finn had to cover his mouth with both hands not to laugh. The guard, it turned out, was a vulptereen, his long purple snout popping out of the helmet with a _plop!_

Poe, however, was quick enough to shift his shock into another gasp of surprise. “See! See!” he said, hitting the bars. “I knew it was you! I would recognize that snout anywhere.”

“If this some kinda trick f’me to free ya, won’t work”, the guard insisted, smacking the bars with his helmet. Poe pulled back, his hands raised defensively.

“Alright man, fine, if you don’t remember, that’s on you! Guess you got one too many shots, huh?”

The guard didn’t answer, but Finn could’ve sworn he stuck out a biforked tongue before continuing down his way – as if the whole experience hadn’t been disturbing enough.

“What was that all about?” he asked, with a raised brow. “Were you trying to flirt your way out of here? ‘Cause it sure didn’t work.”

“I was not _flirting_ with him. I was _distracting_ him”, Poe said, pompously. From his pocket, he took out a little ID card – one that looked exactly like the kind used to unlock the door.

“Holy sh– how did you do that?”

“See, ‘Luke Noramed’,” he said, with air quotes. “I’m like a tesseract. I contain multitudes.”

Poe used the guard ID to unlock their cell. He could not hear the whistling anymore, nor footsteps approaching, so he figured they had the road clear – but Finn wasn’t ready to go quite so fast.

“We can’t leave those people here”, he said, gesturing to the other cells.

“We don’t know what they did to be in there!”

“Exactly! We can’t abandon them.”

People in the other cells had heard them. They had come out, extending their hands, some speaking in tongues neither of them understood. Poe took one look at the road ahead and then back at the cells, sighed, and handed him the ID. “We gotta be quick. We still have to find BB-8.”

Poe tried to contact his droid, but there was too much static to get a good connection, though he could still occasionally pick up BB-8’s frenetic beeps on the other end; Finn, meanwhile, finished opening the cells, urging people to run as fast as they could. He had just opened the last one when he heard screams of ‘hey!’ and ‘what are you doing?!’ coming from the end of the tunnel, before the blue lights of taserguns popped up. At least ten of them.

“Time to go, time to go, time to go!” he hurried, pulling Poe along.

“BB-8! BB-8, can you hear me?” Poe screamed, dashing down the tunnel. “BB-8, go to our ship. Wait for us there! Don’t – don’t leave without us! BB–”

He tripped, and the communicator slipped from his hand, crashing on the floor. Poe tried to pick it up again, but twenty pairs of feet running alongside him crushed the device before he could get to it.

“SCATTER!” Finn shouted, when they reached a crossroad. Pulling Poe by the hand, he didn’t look back to see where the rest of people were going.

Poe just hoped BB-8 was doing alright.

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

In the meantime, back at the casino, BB-8 was...well, doing alright wouldn’t be the right expression, but it was handling it. It had rolled around, dodging people trying to insert coins on it, avoiding the slot machines (although indulging on them when it thought nobody was looking), while nervously searching for any signs of Poe and Finn. They had to be there somewhere, right? It had been what, a couple of minutes? There was no way they were already in trouble!

Okay, maybe it hadn’t been a couple of minutes. Maybe it had been a lot of minutes. But who was keeping track?

BB-8 rolled on and on, until it eventually left the casino, roaming the square around it for any traces of his master. It rolled and rolled and rolled until it was stumbling down towards the race track, reaching the entrance just as a pink-haired lady was about to leave.

They bumped into one another, the lady already a little tipsy. “Woah there, little fella. Careful where you’re going!”

BB-8 beeped, something between an offence and an apology. It looked up, though, and its circuits almost combusted.

“Oh, oh, oh, calm down!” Amilyn Holdo said, when the droid began jumping and beeping nervously. “What do you mean – Leia – when – where – how? How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

BB-8 pulled back, projecting a hologram of Leia’s message to the Vice-Admiral. “The First Order has us cornered. We need reinforcements. Time is running out”, General Organa said, before disappearing and being replaced by their coordinates.

Holdo cursed under her breathe. “Fine. Where is your owner? We have a battle to start.”

Just then, the droid’s comm link started going crazy. There was her answer.

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

Rey’s body felt...strange.

It was as though her body had been caught somewhere between sinking and floating, but not drowning, her feet still firmly on solid ground. She felt ditzy and light-headed and...free, almost. There was no longer any sense of dread, any sense of worry, only the quietness and the calm. It took her a while to realize she was not breathing, and even then, she realized she didn't need to anymore.

Around her, the field of Mortis had given space to a void – like space, but without freezing to death. She wondered how long she’d been in there, and if time mattered, really, at all.

Luke was nowhere to be seen, but Rey still felt his presence around her. “A long time ago”, his voice spoke, somewhere within her. “My father was prophesized by the Jedi to be the one to end the Sith and bring balance to the Force. And, when he killed the Emperor, we believed he had succeeded.”

The void melted, and its place Rey found herself spectating a scene straight legend – Darth Vader throwing the Emperor down an airshaft, while Luke watched in disbelief.

“But”, he continued. “As I studied the Jedi teachings, I realized we were wrong. The Jedi and the Sith are two sides of a same coin; they have fought an endless war since their very conception, dark and light trapped in an eternal circle. One side winning could never bring balance to the Force.”

As he spoke, the world around Rey cracked into a million pieces; each fragment became a different scene, a moment of conflict where the two sides had clashed. Fights atop mountains, fiery pits, hidden templates, deserts – people whose names she knew, almost instinctively, even if she had never seen them before.

“I sought the knowledge of those who’d gone Gray, like Tano or Kreia or Bindo, to better understand how to build the new Jedi order. I feared...” I took a deep breathe. “I feared that by destroying the Sith, we had only created a void to be filled by other dark-side users. Worst – I feared our family was meant to fill that void. It’s why I never had children. Well...one of the reasons.”

The cracks disappeared, replaced by a different scene. It was a Rebel Alliance meeting; a woman – Mon Mothma, someone called her – was speaking. Luke was standing nearby, and across from him an X-Wing pilot with an _Antilles_ nametag. He looked a lot like Poe.

He and Luke smiled at each other, and then looked away, blushing. _Very much like Poe, then_ , she thought, with a smile.

“While I had made my choices in life, I could not impose them on my sister. Leia was...happy. She had begun a career, a life with Han. I could not ask her to deny herself of that. She had already lost...so much.”

Luke’s memory blinked in and out of existence, replaced instead by half a dozen screens, looking back into General Organa’s past – her wedding to Han, surrounded by ewoks; she, giving her inauguration speech at the New Republic parliament; Han and baby Ben rolling in a field of flowers with her watching from a distance; the three of them, watching over a pink crib.

Rey reached out for that last memory, a nod growing in her throat, but when she touched it, they all disappeared.

“Then, Ben asked to join the Jedi Academy. I should have known better, I should have refused him, but I didn’t. I thought...maybe I could watch over him, to avoid what I was afraid would come to pass. But Ben...Ben was a troubled boy. He struggled to make friends, he felt his father and mother were neglecting him by being too busy running the galaxy... I believe he thought that by joining the Jedi Academy, he would find like-minded souls, people with the same abilities as him. A place for him to belong.”

“I’m guessing that didn’t work out”, she said, even though she wasn’t sure he could hear her.

“No. He soon realized he was different than the other students. Stronger. More skilled. But also…less approachable. More difficult to deal with. He saw himself as better than them, with better ideas and better ideologies. He couldn’t connect with the others.” As he spoke, scenes passed her by – boys talking while teenage Ben, with his books and his rattail hair, looked in the distance longingly; he, studying in his room while other students dueled in the gardens; sitting by himself while others grouped in class. “I should have seen the seed growing on him, should’ve done something to stop it.”

“There was nothing you could have done.”

“There is _always_ something you can do, as long as you don’t give up. I never gave up on Ben, but his resentment – with me, with his parents, with his classmates – led him to search for someone else that would listen.”

“Snoke”, she whispered, like a curse word.

“When you take a confuse boy and validate his feelings and give him a target to focus his anger, he becomes much easier to manipulate. I didn’t see it in time – I didn’t realize what was happening, until one day Ben was… gone. Vanished, into thin air, without so much as leaving a note behind. When I searched for him, I found Snoke, his evil presence cloaking Ben from contact. So I went to confront them.”

The void swirled into a shower of colors, and suddenly Rey was somewhere else – now watching as Luke waltzed through the hallways of what appeared to be an old castle, moving the praetorian guard away without so much as lifting a finger. He shoved a pair of doors open, coming face-to-face with Snoke – an old man in his sixties, but who still moved with an agility that took her by surprise. He got up from his throne – gesturing for Ben, sitting at his side, to stay still – and turned on his red lightsaber, charging at Luke.

They clashed, furiously, Luke’s anger burning in his eyes like a sun. Snoke was skilled and powerful, but he was no match for Master Skywalker; easily knocked out, he was on the floor not before long, under the receiving end not of Luke’s lightsaber, but rather of a bolt of Force lightning, one meant to end it all, to consume him whole.

His face cracked and ripped, and he shrunk under the strength of Skywalker. Luke would have finished it right there and then, had Ben not come to his new master’s aid.

He attacked Luke, and the two of them also fought – or rather, Ben fought, while Luke tried not to hurt him. It was... not as easy as it sounded. Afraid of what would happened if they continued, Luke stopped the fight, disarming Ben with a single gesture; the boy’s lightsaber flew out of his hand and it smashed against one of the pillars of the castle, breaking down into pieces.

The scene froze and faded into black.

“I could not bring Ben back with me. I worried I had lost him to the dark side for good. I had no idea that when he had left, Ben had not gone empty-handed”, Luke continued, mournful. “He’d taken a holocron containing the names and locations of all the Force-sensitive children in the galaxy. The rising First Order needed cannon-folder, I guess, so they had scoped the universe in search for powerful children; those who were old enough, Snoke branded as a Knight of Ren, and those who were too young, he suppressed their powers, and they...”

In the dark, a thousand little balls of light came to be, each little drop containing a scene – a moment, where the First Order stormed a family’s house, ripping children from their parents. Amidst them, she reached out and touched one, and it came into view: a little house in a farm, somewhere quiet, where a family lived – a boy and his mother, by the pictures in the living room. She watched as a group of scout troopers, led by a Knight of Ren, kicked down the house door. The mother reached for her blaster, but she was pinned against the wall by an invisible fist. ‘Dhara Leonis, you are hereby punished for your crimes against the Galactic Empire’, the Knight said, as the troopers searched the house. One of them found the son, curled against a cupboard.

That was a face Rey recognized. A face she loved.

“Became Stormtroopers”, she completed, a tear rolling down her cheek.

“I failed them”, Luke said. “As I failed Ben. I tried, the best I could, but they were too fast, too resourceful. Ben had taken the name of Kylo by then, and he became bent on getting rid of his past. He wanted me, his father, his mother – all of us dead. He stormed my academy, and the classmates who didn’t join them, he slayed without so much of a second thought.” She remembered that, the vision she’d seen when she first touched the lightsaber. “Under his orders, attempts against the New Republic were made, trying to destroy his mother’s legacy... but there was still someone in our family he cared for. Someone he loved. Someone he would want by his side when he rose to power.”

“His sister”, she said, her lips trembling.

“Yes. Leia and Han knew he would not stop until he had gotten to her, so they devised a plan – they would send her away with a trusted friend, and I would suppress the memories of those around them, so that Kylo or Snoke could not find her location. A solid plan. But I didn’t work”, his voice cracked, weakened by the visions of the past – ones not even he could share with her. “We didn’t know at the time, but Lando was being tracked by the First Order even before he left. He used the first opportunity he got to mislead them – by leaving the girl on a sand planet, place of a battle not many years before, where he knew Kylo would never look for her. Where he thought she would be safe.”

Rey closed her eyes, hiding her face in her hands. She didn’t want to see how the next memory would play out – she had already revisited it, a thousand times before, although never so clearly, so vividly. ‘You stay here, and I will come back for you, Rey. I promise’, he heard Lando saying; he had a gentle face and a beautiful smile, and she clung on to him as much as she could. _Don’t leave me here, come back!_ She heard herself scream. _Come back!_

He still had to leave anyway.

“Lando switched ships”, Luke continued. “He left the Falcon behind, hoping it would buy him some time - that the First Order would go after it instead, but the ship never left Jakku. But Lando’s...”

“Wh-what happened to him?” she sobbed.

“I couldn’t tell you.”

“Please. Please. I need to know.”

“I mean it. I couldn’t tell you because _we don’t know_. What happened. We assumed he had been shot out of the sky with you in it, but we couldn’t know. I have tried – so many times, I have tried – to find anything, any...indication of where he is, or what could have happened, but there is no trace of Lando anywhere. Not even here.”

Just like that, the void disappeared. Rey was back in the grass, tears streaming down her face as she gasped for an air she didn't need to breathe. Luke was crying, too.

“Leia is my mother”, she whimpered. “And Han – you – Ben – Kylo –”

“I’m so sorry”, he said, pulling her into his arms. “For what I’ve done. To you – to Leia. Taking you away from them... it broke their marriage. I should never have accepted their plan.”

“It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault.”

She held on tight to him, and they cried. They cried, and cried, and cried, until the skies had changed color a thousand times. They cried until they could not cry anymore, and they did not let go.

Not again. Never again.

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

When they came out of the cave again, it was dark and cold. It became clear to them that more than just a couple of hours had passed when they noticed that the mountain top was covered in snow.

“It’s what I was afraid of”, Luke said. “We may be too late.”

“How long has it been?’ she asked, following him down the frozen path.

“You haven’t changed much, so I assume a couple of weeks. Months at best. But we have to be certain.”

“How long have you – how long did you spent there?”

Luke stopped, almost abruptly. “I began searching for this island soon after we thought you had died. Lor San Tekka insisted I continued with the Jedi Academy – he was the only teacher there to survive - but I... I couldn’t. I needed answers. I needed to find a solution, to fix it. Everything. It took me months before I found the location of the first Jedi temple. I left him with my coordinates, in case Leia needed me, but I assumed I would be gone for a couple of months. A year at best.”

“Fourteen, more like it.”

“Too long.”

They returned to the village, where Chewie and R2 were waiting. The local caretaker had either taken very good care of him - he looked heavier than his usual self – or the porg population had gone down dramatically.

Or, who knew, maybe both.

“Chewie, is there any message from the Resistance?” Rey asked.

Chewbacca growled worriedly.

“What do you mean you can’t get a connection to them? Since when?”

He shrugged.

“They may be in trouble. I think it’s time I rejoin the fight. But you–” Luke took Rey’s hands onto his. “You must find Ben. You must bring him back to us.”

“I – I can’t. He’s gone. He – he killed Han. He killed our father. In front of me. And – and he hurt Finn. He’s lost himself completely.”

“No one is every truly lost. No one is ever beyond redemption. But he will not listen to me – he will listen to you.”

“Last time we saw each other, I split his face open.”

Luke raised his robot hand, waving his fingers. “Happens in the best families.”

Chewie groaned to them, something about getting ready to leave. They didn’t know how much time they had. Every passing second was a second wasted.

But Rey wasn’t sure if she was ready yet.

“I don’t think I can do this, Master Skywalker”, she said.

“Uncle Luke is fine”, he assured her, stopping at the entrance of the Falcon.

“That feels weird. But – it’s not that. What if... what if I don’t succeed? What if I fail?”

He smiled. “What if you don’t?”

That was the real question. The real question. The one she was afraid to answer.

She had been hating him – hating Kylo with every inch of her being – for what felt like an eternity; but now, after seeing what she had seen, she knew a part of her, deep within her, also loved Ben. The distant, vague memory of him. Of whom he had been. Of what he could have been.

Even if she brought him to the light, or managed to bring the balance to him – what then? Would the blood on his hands be overlooked, ignored, his crimes swiped away as if they were nothing? The scar on Finn’s back, the one the doctor had said would always be there, was a painful reminder of what he had done; so were the nights she had woken up screaming, the vivid memory of Han’s death still haunting her. Should the blame of his actions be put on Snoke for poisoning his mind, even if Snoke had not been the one to press the ‘on’ button on his lightsaber?

Was saving him only good so they could have another asset to fight against the First Order? And, if they succeeded, then what?

The trillions of lives on the Hosnian system would not be back because her brother felt a bit sorry, now, would they?

She and Luke took their spot in the cockpit, while Chewie said his goodbyes to the fish nuns. “You better not be smuggling any porgs in here!” Luke shouted. In her short experience with them, they were kinda like hamsters – about eating and about pooping.

Rey sat quiet for a while, letting Luke turn on the ship. She played with the dice on the visor, lost in thought. “Uncle Luke...” she said, the words rolling out of her tongue with much more ease than she'd thought. “I was thinking...maybe Ben turned to the dark side because of that haircut he had. I mean, the rattail...”

Luke laughed. “You know what? That is a possibility. You should ask him that.”

“Maybe I will”, she said, leaning back on her chair. “Maybe I will.”

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

“This is bad. This is bad. This is bad”, Finn repeated, as they bolted blindly down the dungeons beneath Canto Bight.

“Can you stop saying that? It’s not helping!” Poe shouted back.

They had managed to put quite a distance between themselves and the guards, but only because they were still confuse as to who they should be following. With so many people running around, they had managed to slip out unnoticed – for now.

“There is no way – there is no way we can get back to the ship now”, Finn said, when they stopped to catch their breaths. “They’re probably gonna be waiting for us.”

“We have to try anyway”, Poe said, resting his head on the hard rock of the wall.

“How are we gonna cross the city without any guards spotting us? And how are we supposed to find Holdo?”

“If we go back to the ship, we can wait outside the planet and intercept her. We broadcast the message through safe channels to anyone who is listening, and hope for the best.”

Finn hid his face in his hands. “Man, I wish you’d stop being so optimistic all the time. Sometimes things are bad. Sometimes there is no way.”

“If there is no way, we make one”, he said, decidedly. “That’s how rebellions survive. And what are we, if not rebels?”

Finn stifled a groan. He didn’t need to look to see Poe had a smug smile on his face. “You know what, Dameron? I’m starting to hate you. I should've picked a different pilot to rescue.”

“Yeah, well, you're stuck with me for the long run, buddy, so get used to it. Speaking of which...”

He poked Finn in the ribs so he would uncover his face. Not much farther ahead down the corridor, there was a door. No, not just ‘a’ door – a barn door.

They looked at each other with eyebrows raised. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Finn asked.

“Probably not, but I’m guessing you wanted to check it out?”

“Wait, what were _you_ thinking?”

“Never mind that”, Poe said, and he chuckled to himself. Some thoughts are better kept private.

The barn door let to, well, a barn. The fathiers poked their heads out when they walked in, surprised by the sudden invasion – as were the group of children who tended to them, who jumped to their feet at the sight of them. They were tending to the wounds of the boy Finn had seen getting whipped earlier, and one of them – the light-skinned girl – ran to the alarm button as a reflex.

“Hey, hey, hey! Hold on! We are not – we are not here to hurt you or anything!” he was quick to say. “We are with the Resistance! Just passing through.”

“Prove it”, said the little dark-skinned boy.

“How are we supposed to prove it?”

“I don't know! Show us an insignia or something!”

“These are not our clothes”, Poe said, grabbing the uniform. “But – but, okay. Okay. My name is Poe Dameron –”

“ _The_ Poe Dameron? The pilot?” the blonde kid asked, putting his shirt back on.

Poe blushed. “Yes. That one. And this is Finn –”

“The traitor?” the three of them said, at the same time, in awe.

“Okay, let’s not – let’s not call him that –”

“I don’t think they mean it in a bad way, Poe”, Finn said, biting down his lower lip. The way the kids were looking at him, with their mouths hanging open, was making him feel all woozy inside. “I think it’s the opposite of that.”

The girl had moved away from the alarm button and the three kids had regrouped. They were whispering between each other and occasionally looking towards them up and down, as if trying to decide if they were the real deal.

It was more intense than blowing up the Starkiller base.

At last, they came to a decision. “What do you need?” the girl asked.

“How fast can these things go?” Finn asked, approaching a fathier. He raised his hand, and the animal gently placed their forehead against it.

“They’re race animals", the black boy said. “I’d said pretty fast.”

“Good. Cool, cool, cool.”

“Are you gonna free all of them again?” Poe asked, with a little nose wrinkle.

Finn was already opening all the stables. “Hey, it worked last time, right?”

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

Outside of the tracks, the guards were still patrolling, searching for any signs of the criminals. There weren’t any races scheduled for the next couple of hours, so they were surprised when the doors were lifted and they heard the buzzing of the animal tracks being opened.

They came out in a torrent, kicking down any and everything on their path, Poe and Finn in the back of one of them. Finn looked back and winked at the boy who’d opened the gates, the injured kid and the girl not much further behind.

The fathiers’ trainers came in droves to try and stop the creatures, their tasering whips at hand, but they could not withstand their joined power. Poe looked back at Finn wide-eyed once they heard what was the distinct sound of bones – several of them, mostly cranial – being crushed under heavy hooves.

Hopping over the fences, the herd ran straight through the windows and into the casino, destroying tables, machines and bringing down whatever stood in the way, including walls. Coins and glasses and bottles were flying everywhere. The glass singer screamed so loud they shattered themselves. Poe searched around for any sign of his rebellious droid, but BB-8 was nowhere to be seen. He wanted to stop and search for it, but there was the genuine fear of getting trampled.

Besides, Finn wasn’t exactly giving him a reason to dismount the ride.

“Oh man, we’re really about to die here!" he cried out, tightening his grip around Poe’s waist.

“Hey, nobody is gonna die! I mean – aside from the people who already did! I’m a pilot, remember?”

“This is not exactly a spaceship, Poe!”

“It’s basically the same!”

“How? It doesn’t even have any buttons!”

“Then we make do!”

Poe tapped on their fathier’s flank, and it changed direction – and, almost by a hive mind, so did all the others. The animals crashed through the glass doors and down to the city, jumping over and on grandlimos, speeders and hoverbikes alike. People screamed as they tried to get out of the way, either from the fathiers or the fires from the vehicles’ explosions. From above, the lights from the guards’ Zephyr speeders shone on them, followed by cease-and-desist warnings.

The bright lights scared the fathiers, and it just made them go faster. They wanted into houses, broke through windows, slipping on wet floors but never, ever slowing down. Clouds of dust filled the night sky, mixed with the smoke from the fire, making it hard for the guards to track them down.

It was the chance they need.

“Come on now, just a little longer!” Poe urged, as the herd stumbled down the levels of the city, finally reaching the edge of the slums. Ahead of them, nothing but the grass, where the fathiers could be free.

The problem was the thing waiting for them there.

“Turn around! Turn around! Turn around!” Finn shouted. The closer they got to the ship, the more they realized they weren't alone – there were groups of heavily armed guards waiting for them, ready to take them the entire herd once they got a clear shot.

Poe tapped their ride again, and they made another sharp turn left, reaching towards the ocean. With the airspeeders back on their tracks, shooting to kill now, they knew they were running out of time. If they could reach the forest – just a little more time –

A shot came from above, missing them by an inch. The fathier they were in neighed and bolted, reaching the forest before the rest.

Under the canopy of the trees, where light couldn’t pass through, the guards lost sight of them – but they also lost sight of the rest of herd. While their ride was still going strong, the rest of them scattered, disappearing into the forest.

But theirs just... kept going.

Until there was nowhere else to go.

The fathier noticed where the forest ended and the sky began before them. It screeched and stopped, dead on its tracks, inches away from the cliff. There was not a moment more appropriated to say they saw their lives flash before their eyes.

“What do we do now?” Poe asked, dismounting the animal. “We have no ship. We didn't find the Vice-Admiral. Half of the city is on fire. Those guards are gonna spot us any minute –”

“Stay calm. We'll work something out. We can –” Finn scratched the back of his head, nervously. The airspeeders were getting closer. “We can steal a ship. Any ship.”

“I don’t even know where BB-8 is!”

A series of excited beeps behind him answered that.

They turned around to look at the cliff, but instead found themselves staring at a massive ship, with the cargo port open. BB-8 was standing there, and if a droid could look full of itself, it was that little orange ball of hatred. And it was not alone.

“Hello boys”, Amilyn Holdo said, with her hands in her hips. “I heard you were looking for a rebel.”

“Vice-Admiral!” Poe gasped. “How did you –”

“Your droid and I bumped into each other. Turns out you need my help, huh? Let's get going.”

They jumped into the ship, just as the guards began shooting at them again. As they left, Finn and Poe looked down on Canto Bight, or whatever was left of it; the flames from the explosions had consumed whatever buildings in the upper levels that they hadn't brought down. A fitting end, Poe thought, but he took no joy in that.

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

Rose Tico was a woman on a mission.

She had put together all the little pieces of the story, through the power of over-analyzing. Others could have done so, too, she figured, but considering how they were stretching themselves thin over the threat hanging above their heads, they hadn’t had much time for that.

But Rose had. And she was _pissed_.

First she had to wait and make sure the confrontation would happen somewhere discreet – somewhere they couldn’t be heard. She didn't want to make a scene, you see, there were too many children on the base.

So she waited, until the culprit had gone pick up something in the back of the base. Rose followed her, and when she went into one of the provisory bedrooms, Rose did as well, locking the door behind them.

“Oh, Ms. Tico! You startled me!” the woman said, with a gentle gasp, dropping the pillow from her hands.

“Why was that?” Rose asked, leaning against the door.

“You know – with all this talk of a spy, and – and poor Lieutenant Connix being attacked like that – we never know.”

Rose frowned. “Why would you be worried about being attacked by the spy, Ms. D’Acy? I mean...aren't you the one working for the First Order?”

Larma D’Acy, Senator Sloane’s assistant, let out an uncomfortable chuckle. “I’m sorry, I don’t – I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Really?” Rose asked. She stepped closer. “Weren’t _you_ the one to knock Kaydel out? Because I figured it was.”

“You figured it wrong!”

“No, I didn’t”, she said, her jaw clenched. “How long have you been working for Senator Sloane?”

“A – A couple of years.”

“Right”, Rose scratched her chin. “But you didn’t _originally_ work for her, right? You work for the Senate, and it’s a lifelong job, so you’re just shuffled to whoever takes the position, isn’t that right?”

“Yes”, Larma said. She had dropped the meekly, mousey attitude; standing up straight, her expression had hardened.

“And who was your boss before Sloane?”

“Senator Norrid Farka.”

"Right. And if I’m not mistaken", Rose took another step forward. Larma backed away against the nightstand. “He was a centrist, right? That’s why you requested to work for him – because he was a centrist. And so are you, right?”

She opened her mouth, but Rose dismissed it with a hand wave.

“Don’t answer that, it’s a rhetorical question. I see the way you look at those refugee children when you think nobody is looking – with disgust and revulsion. Like they are below you. You are a centrist, and you thought, considering who her mother is, that Ava Sloane would be one too! Except she is _not_. She is a compassionate, caring, kind-hearted populist, whose political stances consist of helping people in need and fighting against all the things you believe in. So I ask myself – why stay with her? Why not transfer? But then it hit me...”

Rose came closer again. Larma reached behind herself, for what appeared to be a screwdriver.

“You were the eyes and the ears of the First Order inside a Senate cabinet! Still are, even, though you’re...not as useful now that there is no more Senate. It’s why the left you to die in V’Kifa! But then... then you became useful again. You delivered the Resistance to them in a silver plate. You probably thought you were gonna get, I don’t know, a medal or something.”

D’Acy’s lips quivered. She gripped the screwdriver a little tighter. “I was a going to be a hero. General Hux –”

“General Hux is an asshole, and he was gonna gun you down and take your win from you the first chance he had”, Rose laughed. “Especially considering how sloppy you were. I mean...a clever plan, but sloppy. Correct me if I’m wrong, but you heard General Organa mentioning the shields to Senator Sloane – nobody really ever pays attention to you – so you used the cover of searching for things for the children as a way to search for it. Not hard to find; we don’t have many passcode-protected doors here. Then, you used the fact that the Senator was feeding the hungry to put something on Connix’s food, and when she had to go to the bathroom, you snatched her pass from her. But you didn’t expect her to notice what was happening in the fuel room.”

“She wasn’t supposed to come back so soon", Larma spit out, angrily.

"Yeah, but Kaydel is nothing if not efficient. So she realizes there is something wrong...she gets into the room, but she doesn’t notice you...so you knock her out and run? Why not kill her right there and then, finish the job?”

“I’m not a murderer!”

“But the First Order is! And they will kill every single person in this base because of you!”

“But nobody will know it’s because of me.”

Larma lunged herself at Rose, screwdriver at hand, but Tico was faster – she had brought a taser along, just in case, and she damn well knew how to use it.

The shock sent D’Acy slamming against the wall, passing out cold.

“For someone who’s not a murderer, you sure were about to gut me like a womb rat”, she scoffed, dragging Larma’s body back to the command center. She could’ve used a stretcher for that, but...Rose didn't think she was deserving of one.

She had figured that Larma was probably the one who had informed Senator Sloane of her status as a First Order escapee – it was not exactly common knowledge, but also not a secret. In her mind, Larma had probably thought she could shift the blame towards someone else. She had just picked the wrong target.

The Resistance leaders were shocked to hear what Rose had discovered – Senator Sloane more so than all others. Deep down, they had held out on the hope that there was a mistake; that maybe something had happened and there was no traitor amidst them.

But that would be too lucky.

“What should we do with, you know, her?” Rose asked, poking Larma with her shoe. She could hear them, but not move – the taser disabled her body functions for a couple of minutes, just in case she wouldn’t try any other funny business.

“We lock her up somewhere. For the time being”, General Organa said. “Whatever other damage she could’ve done, you stopped her in time, Ms. Tico, and we are thankful for that. It can’t reverse what she already did, but it's a start.”

“How much fuel do we have left?” Rose asked, approaching the table.

“Ten hours, but it doesn't matter. The second shield is weaker than the first one, fuel or no fuel – it won’t hold out for much longer. I’m afraid...” Leia closed her eyes, swallowing dry. “I’m afraid our plan B won’t arrive on arrive on time. We’ve run out of options."

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that, General”, Admiral Ackbar said, excitedly. On the holoprojector, a red dot appeared, coming out of lightspeed, and soon enough dozens more popped off. “I think the cavalry has arrived.”

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

General Hux was sure this was the end of the Resistance. There were other factions scattered across the universe, sure, but without their leader – the mighty General Organa – they would end up running around bumping into each other like headless cockroaches. With the first shield down and the second one weakening by the minute, all they needed was to discharge their dreadnought a couple of more times and there would be nothing standing in their way to victory.

He was sure this meant they had won the war.

But then ships started coming out of hyperspace.

Dozens upon dozens upon dozens of them. Every radar screeching so loud, he was sure even Supreme Leader Snoke would be able to hear them. He was at the bridge the moment when it happened, and the smug expression on his face was wiped out so fast, he almost strained his face muscles.

“Are those our ships?” he asked, even though he knew they weren’t, still holding on to a small, inexorable hope that maybe Supreme Leader had used those stupid Force tricks to, who knew, maybe contact their fleet somewhere else for...back up?

But that wasn’t the case. “These are rebel ships, sir”, said the technician, and she did not turn back to look at him, worried what he would do, in his anger.

Hux huffed. And huffed. And huffed. Like a teapot trying not to blow up. “Send all our ships to counter the attack”, he said, clenching his fists.

“All of them?”

“ _All_ of them”, he repeated. He turned away from the bridge, ready to leave, when another technician stopped him.

“Sir, there is also...an incoming message. From an enemy ship.”

“If it’s that blasted Dameron making jokes about my name again–”

“No sir, it’s...not for you. It’s for Kylo Ren.”

Hux turned over, arching a brow. “Patch it through. I’ll deliver it to him personally.”

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

The doors to the chamber opened and Hux came through just as Kylo was finished with his younger self; it laid on the floor, defeated, before he delivered the killing blow and shattered it into a million pieces.

“Are you playing with yourself again? How many times do we need to go through this before it gets awkward?” Hux asked, with a smirk.

Kylo would've countered, but it was a pointless argument at this point. “What do you want?” he asked, turning his saber off.

“We’ve just received a message,” he said. “For you. Ben Organa. From your sister.”

“What? What are you talking about?”

Hux threw the holodisk at him with the message. “She’s coming over. Waving a white flag, it seems. Should we just shoot her out of the sky?”

Kylo’s fingers trembled as he held on to the disk. He didn’t need to press play to know who had sent it. “No!” he yelped. “Supreme Leader Snoke will want her.”

“Right, _he_ will.”

Kylo turned over, looking back to the only mirror not broken. Rey was still there, but she was no longer in an attacking position – just staring at him. Urging him to go to her.

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

Rey still thought it was a bad idea. Every ounce of her was telling her it was a bad idea. But, at the same time, she trusted Master Skywalker had a grand plan.

Or at least _a_ plan.

The Falcon jumped from hyperspace near the coordinates Rey and Luke had tracked the First Order to. They realized, a little too late, that they had arrived at a siege on the Resistance.

“We need to help them!” she said, leaning against the dashboard.

“And we will. Chewie and I will do what we can to help, but you need to go to Ben.” He rested a hand upon her shoulder. “Believe in yourself. Believe in the Force. You are the Sword of the Jedi, Rey. There is nothing you can’t do.”

“There is nothing I can’t do”, she repeated, over and over, while her escape pod crossed the distance between the Falcon and the _Supremacy_.

She felt like it was the stupidest thing she'd ever done – mailing herself to her own death. All she could hope for is that it would be worth it.

Her pod arrived at the hangar just as the First Order TIE fighters began departing. Kylo was standing over the pod, waiting for her – but he did not let her speak.

“Cuff her”, he demanded. “And take her to Supreme Leader. We’ll deal with this personally.”

“Ben, wait!” she cried out for him, but he had already marched out of the hangar, With her hands behind her back, Rey was taken as well, disarmed and pulled around through the corridors of the ship by a group of stormtroopers.

She could’ve taken them out down right there and then, but she needed to see where Kylo would take her first. If she could get a moment alone with him... then she knew she could work something out.

They took her up an elevator, a blaster pressed against her back. A part of her felt...bad for them. Knowing who they were. Knowing who they were meant to be. The First Order had destroyed their lives.

Kylo – no, Ben. _Ben_ had destroyed their lives.

The elevator led to what could only be described as the throne room, with Snoke sat right at the end of it and Kylo standing next to him, the Skywalker lightsaber by Snoke’s side; an imagery that reminded her of Luke’s memory, the day he had struck Snoke down. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same.

She felt her muscles freeze as she was pulled closer to them, dragged by Snoke’s power as though ropes had been tied around her body. “Rey Organa, the family’s pride and joy”, his fingers so close to her face she could almost feel him touch her, and the idea itself made her stomach churn. “Have you come to surrender yourself? Have you seen the errors of your ways?”

“I’ve come to bring him home”, she said, through gritted teeth, with a confidence she didn’t know where she had found.

“Home?” he scoffed, his laughter echoing up and down the tiles of chamber. “This is where he belongs, child. It is where he chose to be.”

“You manipulated him! Luke showed me the truth! You –”

“Luke. Doesn’t know. Anything”, he said, and with a wave of his hand, he flung her upwards, holding her above like a raggedy doll. “He’s a fool and a coward, and I will destroy him, as soon as I am done destroying you.”

Rey’s screams filled the chamber as he forced his way into her mind, his grip on her tightening so much so she began to feel her bones crushing under the weight of his hand.

Even the praetorian guard shifted, a little uncomfortable.

“That’s enough”, Kylo interrupted. Snoke let go of her, letting her body fall hard onto the floor.

“Ben...” she called out; begged, almost. “I know you’re still in there, somewhere. Come back. Come with me. There’s still time to fix this. The Resistance needs you. I need you.”

She was pinned to the floor in front of the throne, reaching out for him. Snoke had turned his gaze upon him as well, with a sneer. “Show her”, he said. “The Ben Organa she thinks still exists.”

Kylo hesitated, but pulled off his mask, revealing his scarred face. The place where the lightsaber had touched left a mark, like Finn’s scar, but deeper; his eye had gone glassy and white, blinded in the aftermath of the fight.

Not even there he resembled the Ben she had once known.

“It’s time to end this”, Snoke said. “Kill her. Cut the last tie.”

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

Vice-Admiral Holdo’s main ship, the _Homewrecker_ , sat outside one of the moons of Yzza, where they went to regroup. Poe was surprised to see the size of their fleet: almost three times the amount they had used during the battle at Kuyper. Probably a sign that whatever deals Holdo had been doing on Canto Bight, had been fructiferous.

“If we depart now, we can get to Crait before they breach the shields”, Poe said, while he and Finn followed the Vice-Admiral to the main hub.

“It’s truly a matter of urgency, then. What I feared”, Holdo said, scratching behind her head. “I assume we cannot wait a moment longer.”

“Why? Is there a problem?”

“Not necessarily. But we have our mission, just as you did, Commander Dameron.”

“Colonel”, Finn corrected.

“I’m sorry?”

“Colonel Dameron”, Finn said, ignoring Poe elbowing him on his left side.

“Is that so? Congratulations. Far as I know, it’s a well-deserved promotion”, she said, turning to Finn. “And you are...?”

“I’m – I’m Finn.”

“Oh, Finn? The –”

“The traitor, yes”, he said, a little resigned to the title.

“I was gonna say the ‘spark’”, she corrected, with a smirk. “Word of your defection has caused quite a stir among the First Order – our fulcrum at the New Arkanis Academy tells us at least two dozen cadets have defected in the last three months.”

“Is that what your mission is?” he asked, trying to ignore how his ears had perked up. “Rescuing them?”

“No. Major Brance is in charge of that. Our mission is more delicate. Come with me.”

Once they reached the command center, Vice-Admiral Holdo turned on a map of the Outer Regions. A little green dot indicated where they were, but she was more concerned about a purple one, blinking on the edge of the map, almost outside the scope of Wild Space.

Finn had seen those schematics before.

“We’ve been investigating First Order activity beyond the Unknown Regions”, Holdo explained. “We believe they are working on something. Something big.”

“Another Starkiller base?” Poe asked.

“Maybe. But reports say they are actually farming something. Quintessence.”

“Dark energy”, Finn said. Now he knew where he had seen that before. “It’s what they used to fuel Starkiller base.”

He remembered talking to General Ackbar about it before. It was a hard substance to produce, but not impossible. How they had managed to farm it _en-masse_ was a whole different story.

“We have been trying to figure out what their next move is, but we can delay the search for a couple of days”, Holdo said, turning off the map. “Now we better get ready. If we’re about to take on the First Order, we need to be on our best selves.”

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

Finn knew there was something wrong the moment they made the jump from lightspeed. It came like an aching, scratching deep within his soul. And he knew the source of it.

“Rey is in that ship”, he said, before boarding his X-Wing.

“What?” Poe asked, from the X-Wing nearby.

“Rey is in the Supremacy”, he repeated, a little wide-eyed. “I need to – I gotta go there. I gotta help her."

“Are you sure? How do you know?”

“I don’t know, I just – I felt it. I need to help her.”

He left his ship, throwing his helmet aside. Poe looked at the last of the fleet still to be deployed, then back at Finn, and decided to follow his example. “And how exactly are you gonna do that? Hey! Hey! Finn!”

Finn stopped. His expression hardened. “Are you gonna try to talk me out of it?”

“No. Of course not.” Poe sighed, holding on to his arm. “I know Rey is important to you. I know...I know you would do anything to help her. But you can’t just drop everything. You need a plan first.”

“Well, I was going to – you know – I –”

“Exactly. Leave it to me. Come here.” He dragged him back to their ships, the last ones still on the bay. “BB-8, can you hack into the First Order mainframe? Just for a couple of seconds, enough to pass through?”

BB-8, sitting atop of the ship, let out a series of angry, loud beeps. Finn didn’t need a word-for-word translation to understand what it was trying to convey.

“Alright, yeesh! I was just asking!” Poe rolled eyes. “Finn, you take this one. Go with BB-8. The ship will cloak your signal so you two are off their range, then BB is gonna slice you a way past their shields and into the _Supremacy_. Enough to get you where you need to be. If you need me, just – call.”

They stood in front of each other for a moment, both thinking the same thing, but neither willing to take that next step. There was a sense of dread in the air, as outside TIE fighters and X-Wings clashed and blew each other up; the fear of not seeing each other again. Of the things that would unsaid.

It was Poe that broke off the silence. “May the Force be with you”, he said, in a heavy voice, putting his helmet on.

Finn was the first one to depart. Just as Poe had said it would, BB-8 brought down the shield – for a split second, if that much. Inside the dreadnought, one of the technicians noticed the shield flickering, but with so many ships crashing against them, it went unnoticed.

They sneaked through the maintenance vents, and Finn found himself switching clothes again. “BB-8, can you...store this for me?” he asked, handing the droid his jacket. BB-8 beeped angrily, something clearly on the lines of ‘do I look like a doshing wardrobe to you?’ but it knew its master would not be happy if it didn’t comply, so it opened a little port and let Finn store the jacket inside.

The First Order clothes felt weird and uncomfortable on him. When he looked at himself in the mirror, wearing the tight, black uniform, he looked like somebody else entirely – like another, splintered version of himself that existed somewhere else. One that had followed the path that Phasma had told him was meant for him, years before; that he was destined for great things in the First Order.

The sheer thought of it made his skin crawl in disgust.

He navigated through the corridors of the _Supremacy_ , with a familiarity he wished he didn’t have. Most people didn't pay attention to him; with the fight going on outside, all personnel had been told to return to their posts. Every once in a while, however, someone would pass by and shoot him a strange look; almost as if they recognized him.

Good thing that nobody stopped him, however.

He searched for Rey through the halls. Somehow, Finn could still feel her presence, like a lingering perfume that led everywhere and nowhere at once. But, with the trail getting faint by the second, he knew wherever Rey was – he needed to find her. Fast.

BB-8 was rolling by his side, hacking doors open and shutting down droids that started beeping a little too weirdly for its taste. It ran into a BB-9E unit when they made their way past the cargo bay just as the unit arrived from updating the ships; they circled one another, checking each other out; that is, before BB-8 shoved its arc wielder into the enemy droid, short-circuiting it.

“Hey, keep a low-profile, would ya?” Finn complained, in a hush. “We’re trying to go incognito here!”

Much to their luck – or lack thereof – a group of stormtroopers was marching by exactly as he said it, and they heard him. “You! Hands in the air!”

Finn backed away against a wall, and BB-8 beeped a little whimper.

They came over, four of them with their blasters at hand; the leader of the party pointed his at Finn's face. “I know you”, he said. “You’re FN-2187! The traitor!”

Oh, great. “Hey, hey, hey! Hold on! Lemme explain!”

“Explain what?” the one to the leader’s right asked. “You’re a traitor!”

“Traitor? Traitor to what? To what cause?” he asked. They didn’t answer. “What do you fight for here? So Hux can get another promotion? So Phasma doesn’t whip you? How many of your squadron are out there, getting blown up right now? How many – how many of your friends went on a mission and never came back?”

Again, there was no answer – but this time, Finn could see their fingers moving away from the triggers. But he wasn’t ready to breathe easier. “You guys – me – we have all been used by the First Order. They took us from our families – they use us as disposable folder in their wars –”

“My dad sold me for drinking money”, the one in the back, which sounded like a woman, said.

“No, he didn’t! None of them did! That’s just another lie – another trick they play on us. To make us compliant. To make us stop questioning them. We were taken – and – and forced into these armors! Forced to die for them! But it doesn’t need to be like that. You can – you can _live_. A real life. Far away from this...from the battlefield...you don’t even need to join the Resistance! We can get you somewhere safe.”

“You’re lying. You’re a liar!” the one in the left said, pointing his gun at Finn a little more aggressively, his hands already shaking.

“I’m not. You know I’m not. You know – you know you don’t want to do this. You don't want to kill innocent people. That’s why your shots never hit the target – ”

“Hey!” the woman complained.

“But it’s true. You know all of this is wrong. Come with me and I will show you.”

They dropped their weapons. Even under their helmets, Finn could see – they were considering it. Actually, _really_ considering it. His chest swelled with pride, only to have it deflate when he heard the distinct sound of a blaster being shot.

One, two, three, four times.

The bodies of the stormtroopers fell down in front of him, each with a distinct hole where their hearts ought to be. “I always said these armors were too weak”, said the shooter, her distinctive chromium armor marching his way.

Phasma.

She cast her blaster rifle aside, pulling out her command staff. “I always knew you would crawl your way back here, you vermin.”

Finn swallowed dry. The blasters of the fallen troopers were too far for him to reach; even if they weren't, it wasn't like they would do much good on her anyway.

Thankfully, BB-8 came in a clutch.

It beeped and bumped on him, agitated. When Finn looked down, he saw the droid had pulled out something from one of its compartments - a cylindrical something. Leia’s gift.

He pulled the cap open and a silver, slightly curved hilt fell out. The inscriptions ‘Tano #2’ were carved on it.

When he pressed the button, a white blade popped out.

“Okay...that is awesome!” he said, but he didn’t have time to enjoy the moment – Phasma was already upon him.

Staff and saber hit each other, and the shock almost blinded him for a second. She didn’t even give him time to think of a strategy; coming fast and hard, Phasma swung at him, missing his head by a couple of inches; he dodged her attacks while trying to get an opening, all those years learning combat tactics finally paying off.

When she pushed back, he pushed forward. When she went up, he dodged, striking at her legs – chromium, turned out, wasn’t _that_ impenetrable to a saber attack. He could feel her fury at every swing of her staff, tearing the corridors down. She wanted him dead, but he – he just wanted all those people free.

He kicked her back, but she came at him again, in for the kill.

That's when it happened.

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

It was weird to be flying on a different ship and without the company of his droid, but Poe couldn’t say he was hating it. The armada under Vice-Admiral Holdo was rather different than his T-70: they were larger, lighter, their thrusters were more powerful, their shields were reflectory _and_ deflectory, not to mention all the other funky little improvements that made his own X-Wing feel outdated.

Not that he would give up on Black One, of course, but old girl could use a few improvements.

Still, the fight was not an easy one – especially not with those pesky little magnum-class TIE fighters back into the fold. They put on a lot of trouble, and not even the appearance of what Poe was sure to be the Millennium Falcon didn’t serve to tip the scales towards them.

Worse yet, the barrier around the planet had started flickering in several distinct points. Every new shot from the canon of the dreadnought weakened it a little more. It wouldn’t be long before it came down completely.

“Vice-Admiral, we need to do something about that canon!” he shouted, over the comms. “Are there any bombers available?”

“A few”, Holdo answered. “But none could get closer without taking down the weaponry first.”

“I can do it. I did it on the last one! I –”

“No, Poe”, she interrupted. “We can’t mobilize our ships to escort a payload this heavy. We would get slaughtered.”

 _We did_ , Poe thought, the memory of Snap’s X-Wing blowing up right in front of him still burning on the back of his mind. “But then – what other option do we have? What else can we do?”

There were ships from both sides of the fight blowing around him. A TIE fighter fired at him, but his shot was reflected onto the two others nearby, taking them out for him – but, just as it did, another blast from the dreadnought was fired, bringing the second shield down.

But still, not all hope was lost.

“I don’t think we can do anything, Colonel", Vice-Admiral Holdo said. “I think somebody else is already doing it for us.”

He didn’t understand what he meant until he saw the tiny ship coming from Crait at full speed. “What the –”

That’s when it happened.

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

Kylo came forward, lightsaber in hand, until he stood between Supreme Leader and Rey, the blazing blade almost touching her neck. Her eyes; her freckles; for a moment, she was just as he remembered her when they were growing up. The only memory he had held on to since the news of her ship being shot down came.

“Do it. Kill her”, Snoke insisted, leaning forward on his chair.

“No” was the answer.

He turned around and plunged his lightsaber into Snoke, almost enjoying the look of shock and horror on Supreme Leader’s face, a gasp escaping his lips as the red blade sunk deeper into him. Rey put herself back on her feet, pulling her lightsaber to her, and for a moment the two siblings stared at each other, breathless and in shock. Rey smiled.

But then the shock passed – for them, and for Snoke’s guards.

The praetorian guard unsheathed their lightsabers and charged at them. Back to back, Rey and Kylo – and _Ben_ – fought their way through them, slashing and kicking and tearing them apart.

Rey had just cut off the arm of one of them when a second turned their saber into a whip, grabbing a hold of hers and pulling her closer; but Rey was quicker, spinning her way out of their grip, the blade of her saber splitting the guard's neck open. Another one came to her, two blades at hand - like that was some kind of challenge to her.

Ben, on the other hand, had been cornered by the guards left. His saber clashed against one of the guards, and he used it to protect himself from an attack of the other, kicking them in the chest. They kept coming at him, too fast for him to see from all sides; he slashed the head of one off, but there were two others already taking their place, turning their sabers into spears and whips and halberds.

He heard Rey scream as she impaled one of the guards on her saber, and the moment of distraction got him put into a chokehold, a blade nearing his throat. Rey caught a glimpse of it in time to fling her lightsaber at him, blowing a hole on the guard’s face.

With the last of them falling dead on the floor, their head rolling off the edge of the ship, the room went quiet. With a hand wave, Rey pulled her lightsaber back, but Ben didn’t stop her.

Neither knew what to say to the other at that point; Ben had a thousand different things going through his mind, while hers had gone blank. Now that it was all said and done, where did that leave them?

Except… it wasn’t all done. Not yet, anyway.

They heard a cackling coming from the throne. Snoke’s corpse raised its head, a maniac grin spread across its face. “Well done, Kylo”, it said. “Your will is weak, but your powers are stronger than ever. Exactly what I needed.”

Ben raised his lightsaber, approaching the body carefully. That was his mistake.

Snoke raised a finger towards Ben, and as he did, his body began to crumble into dust. “What the–” Ben began to say, but his voice died in his throat soon enough; the sand was blown across the room, swirling into a cloud around him. It burrowed itself into his eyes and mouth and ears and nose, forcing his way inside of him.

Rey tried to help, but she as frozen in place, having to watch the remnants of Snoke disappear inside her brother. By the time it was done, Ben had a wicked smile across his face, and his good eye had gone completely black.

“Now this. This is raw power”, he said, but his voice didn't sound the same.

“What is this? What happened?” she asked, breaking herself free from his control.

“So different from that old husk”, he continued, flexing his fingers, completely ignoring her. “You know, I wanted Skywalker, but his will was too strong. I knew I had to wait...bide my time, wait for the next candidate. Missed my chance with Vader, so I had to build myself a new one.”

“What did you do to Ben?” she asked, raising her saber.

He looked over at her with disdain. “Ben Organa is dead. And so are you.”

With their lightsabers at hand, they charged at each other, going for the kill.

That’s when it happened.

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

“What’s our status?” Connix asked, as soon as she stepped into the hub.

Leia, Gial, Ava, Rose and the rest of the Resistance turned to her, each with a slightly different but still nonetheless very concerned expression on their faces. “What are you doing out of bed, lieutenant?”

“It was just a minor injury, General. I’m not gonna let that get in the way”, she said, taking her usual post. “How is our situation looking?”

“Vice-Admiral Holdo’s fleet has arrived, and they are holding out pretty good so far”, Rose said. They had watched every single dot on the map, especially those who disappeared – ally ship or otherwise. “But our defenses are at 20%, and dropping fast. The shield is not gonna hold out for much longer.”

“Can’t we send our own squadrons to help?”

“We could, but our X-Wings are low on fuel, and so are our pilots. They wouldn’t be of much use,” Leia said, leaning closer to the map. Her heart had given a little jump when she saw the Millennium Falcon jumping into the fight – it meant Rey and Chewie were back, and hopefully Luke along with them. “We should start loading the escape pods.”

“But General! What about that dreadful dreadnought?” C3PO chipped in, as if anyone had been able to forgot its existence.

“We have to hope that Holdo will figure something out.”

“That basically means we are back where we started, then”, Rose sighed. “What was the point of taking down the first one if we were just gonna end up on the same spot again?”

“But we are not on the same spot. We have an advantage”, Leia corrected, placing her hand over Rose’s. “And your sister’s sacrifice was not in vain. We will find a way.”

“I think...someone already has”, Kaydel said, double-checking her screen. The shield had gone down to 10%, but that wasn't what concerned her – the hangar door had been opened.

“What is happening?” Leia asked. She turned around, noticing there was one person missing in the command center. “Where is Admiral Ackbar?”

But she already knew the answer.

Gial Ackbar had never been one to sit around and wait for rescue. He was the kind to take action – whenever and wherever that action needed to be taken. It was why he had been a valuable member of both the Rebel Alliance and the Resistance.

But after watching governments come and governments go; after decades of trying to do the right thing and meeting opposition every step of the way, he had gotten tired. Tired of...trying. Of losing. Tired of seeing the same old fascist regimen raising from the ashes of an old one, rebranded but still nonetheless the same. First Order; might as well call themselves ‘neo-Empire’ and be done with it!

No, better yet.

He was the one to be done with them.

Admiral Ackbar took Connix’s arrival as an excuse to leave. He opened the doors to the bay with his access code and boarded the empty _Raddus_ , assuring his crew – who’d come to him, all rather nervous, waiting for instructions - that everything was under control. No, they didn’t need to come with him; no need to waste more lives. He could make it work. He was _gonna_ make it work out. Whether the First Order wanted or not.

The _Raddus_ went upwards and into the sky. The Supremacy had just shot another blast against the shields, taking them down completely. Another shot aimed at the base and they would be dead – there was no way they could survive a direct hit. Good thing it took them a couple of minutes to reload.

“Gial! Gial, what the hell are you doing?!” he heard Leia scream over the comms, but he turned them off. He cast his thoughts to Mon Cala one last time, before setting the course to lightspeed.

He didn’t go very far. From the edge of the planet, Admiral Ackbar made the jump, crossing the space and hamming his ship through the Supremacy, splintering it in half. Had the dreadnought’s shields not been up, the entire ship would’ve blown up like its predecessor and everyone would’ve been blown into space; still, the explosion sent a shockwave that rocked everything on its vicinities and made, for a long second, the entire battle stand completely still.

 _That_ is what happened.

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

The Supremacy had become a pit of fire and destruction, a molten metal inferno that was consuming everything in its path.

Those who were smart enough had jumped into escape pods, including the surviving technicians. Hux had threatened them into staying, but he got trampled by them on their way out.

He pushed past the hordes of fleeing cowards, until he reached Snoke’s throne room. It had been completely destroyed; the Supreme Leader was nowhere to be seen, the praetorian guard was dead, and Kylo Ren had fallen unconscious.

Hux reached out for his blaster, ready to put him out of his misery, but he moved at the last second, sparing him the pleasure of taking the final shot.

“Where is the girl?” Kylo asked. His voice sounded different.

“She left. On an escape pod. Where is the Supreme Leader? What happened here?”

“She killed him. All of them”, he said, standing up. “Have we breached the shields yet?”

“Yes, but –”

“Good. Gather our forces. Call up the Knights. We have to go down to the planet and finish this.”

“Are you out of your mind? We need to evacuate – to regroup –”

“I _said_ ”, he repeated, force-chocking Hux onto his knees. “We have to go down to the planet and kill. All. Of them.”

He let go of his grip, leaving Hux behind gasping for air.

“Snoke is dead”, he continued, marching towards the door. “I’m the Supreme Leader now.”

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

Despite the fire consuming everything around them, Finn and Phasma had not stopped their duel. Her relentless attacks met his unyielding defense, and so they strived on, even as the structure began to collapse all around them.

Finn’s arms ached where her staff had met the skin, burning through his shirt; his lightsaber had torn off several pieces of Phasma’s armor, and the pouring blood was coating the chromium red.

But it didn’t stop her – it didn’t slow her down. Their weapons clashed and crashed and broke down whatever stood between them. Walls came down, swallowed either by the fire or the darkness of space below, whichever got their hands on it first. Finn tried not to look, knowing that even the slightest misstep could be the end of it all.

BB-8 tried to help the way it could, but it had also been caught on the sliding floor, trying not to fall to its death.

“BB-8, be careful!” Finn shouted, when the droid hopped off, just as the floor under it disappeared.

The moment of brief distraction was the upper hand Phasma needed. She swung her staff at him, making him lose balance and fall back into the abyss.

“I was wrong about you, FN-2378”, she gloated, turning her back to him. “You were always scum.”

“ _Rebel_ scum”, Finn corrected. As he fell down, he reached within himself – to something he didn’t quite understand, to something he couldn’t quite put into words. It pulled him upwards, lifting him into the air and back into solid ground.

Maybe Han had been wrong. Maybe that _was_ how the Force worked.

Phasma turned, in time to see Finn’s lightsaber approaching, slicing through her neck in a clean cut. Head and body tumbled down, into the pit that was meant to be Finn's.

Once it was over, Finn allowed himself to kneel for a moment, giving in to the exhaustion. He knew, however, he couldn’t stay still for much long; he had to find a way out before he, too, ended up with Phasma’s same fate. The problem was finding a way out – most of the ships had been destroyed by then, and the ones who hadn’t been were too far away for him to reach. There was no access to the other side of the ship, either, not to mention he hadn’t even found Rey!

Thankfully, he could always count on a little help from his friends.

“Does anybody need a ride?” came a familiar voice, and Poe Dameron slid next to him, looking as charming as he had last seen him.

“How did you find me?” he asked. A series of loud beeps made themselves heard as BB-8 hopped past the flames and, using grappling hook, climbed its way into the X-Wing.

“BB-8 sent me your coordinates. Said you were in trouble”, Poe explained. “Come on! It’s gonna be a little tight, but I think you can fit here.”

“I can’t go yet!” he said, turning back to the hellmouth. He couldn’t feel her there anymore; her presence had vanished. “I still need to find Rey!”

“Rey’s already left, buddy! Hop in!”

“How’d do you know?”

“Call it a hunch.”

Not much far behind them, the Millennium Falcon sped by, headed to Crait.

With the ground crumbling under his feet, Finn decided to heel Poe’s call. He climbed onto the X-Wing, trying to ignore the whistling sounds BB-8 was making, and they blasted off, just in time to see the platform crumble and fall into the fire.

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

The _Homewrecker_ was the first ship to arrive in Crait, and the Vice-Admiral was the first to step out. She rushed to Leia’s arms and the two women embraced closely.

“I'm glad you’re okay, my friend”, Leia said, with a warm smile. “You’ve changed your hair.”

“So have you”, Amilyn chuckled, placing her hands at each side of Leia's face, her thumb stroking Leia's cheek. “I’m sorry to hear about Han.”

“Me too”, she said, sorrowful.

“And who was it, in that maneuver?”

“Ackbar.”

Holdo flinched. “A heavy loss, but one that will not be forgotten.”

“Yes. In time, we will honor them properly.” Leia looked back to the hangar, to the corner where Rose Tico had been sitting. “All of them.”

Their tender moment was interrupted by the arrival of the rest of the fleet, with one last ship to close the formation. Leia felt her chest swell when she saw the Falcon approaching in the distance, a part of her still secretly hoping _he_ would be there, still her scruff-looking nerf herder.

It was another wound that had hurt for years, another hollowness inside her chest that she had tried her best to hide – with the galaxy in turmoil (again), who had time to think of those things, even? And yet still the wound stayed, and then it was reopened, in the worst way possible.

Happiness, always just a little out of reach.

That didn’t mean she wasn’t happy when the doors opened and Luke popped his head out. At least _that_ wound had begun to heal.

He hugged her, almost lifting her off the ground, and kissed her all over. “Hi there, sis. Did you miss me?” he asked, always so cheeky.

“Wait, you were gone?” she squinted. “I didn’t notice.”

He rolled eyes. “Sorry. Things... didn’t go as I expected.”

“When do they ever?” she asked, squeezing his cheek. “At least it made you stop dyeing your hair.”

“Hey, I was a beautiful blonde. At least give me that much.”

That much she had to admit. The charming Master Skywalker – she had always considered herself lucky to get to Han before he did.

She squeezed herself next to Luke and they turned back to the Falcon, where Chewie had just emerged. Next to him, a much smaller figure, approaching shyly; Rey took her first steps out of the Falcon and towards Leia and Luke, her hands hiding behind her back, teeth scrapping against her bottom lip nervously.

“Hi...mom”, she said, almost scared of hearing the words come out of her mouth.

Leia gave her and Luke a puzzled look. Luke, ever so gently, placed a finger upon her forehead and closed his eyes. The mental block dissolved, and as the torrent of memories came back, so did the flood of tears. Mother and daughter held on to each other properly for the first time in fourteen years, and still it felt like not a day had passed.

“I should have known”, Leia said, her nose buried on Rey’s hair. “You’re just like Han. You have his eyes.”

Rey sobbed, her arms wrapped firmly around Leia, and if she could, she would have stayed there forever. But there, unfortunately, were still pressing matters to discuss.

“I went to him”, she said, wiping her eyes. “To – to Ben. I spoke with him.”

“You did?” Leia asked, helping her recompose herself. “What happened?”

“He... he...” she wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “He was gonna come with me. We took down the praetorian guard together. He killed Snoke. To save me.”

“Wait, what? He did?” Luke asked, butting in. “But in that case –”

“Something happened. I... I don’t really understand what. He died but his body... it turned into sand. Thick, black sand. And it –”

“Possessed him”, Luke completed. “Took over.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Do you know what it is?” Leia asked.

“It’s a Force Leech”, Luke said, rubbing his face with his hands. “First time I met Snoke – I knew he was not what he looked like. Too old for his body, too strong.”

“What...exactly is that?” Rey asked.

“It’s something out of Jedi legends. A creature that feeds off of the Force itself. It's said to prolong the life of the host so it can feed off of it for as long as it can. Sometimes decades, a century.”

“What about Ben? Is he – is he still in there?”

“I don’t know. Maybe”, Luke said, but his face told otherwise. “If anything, we still have to be hopeful."

But Rey didn’t have hope. She had seen it...in his eye. Ben, whatever there was left of him, was gone, and not even Luke Skywalker himself could pull him out of that darkness.

She clung on to Leia, to the warmth she had missed so much in the last fourteen years. The thought of letting go for even a second was almost painful. It also reminded her of something.

“Where is Finn?” she asked, poking her head around the crowd.

“That is a good question”, Leia said, looking around. “He and Poe should have arrived with the rest of Holdo’s fleet.”

“They are coming, don’t worry about it”, Luke said.

Leia raised an eyebrow. “How would you know?”

Luke raised his right hand, lowering his fingers slowly. “Five. Four. Three. Two...”

Just then, they heard a screeching sound coming through the still-open doors. An aircraft was coming down, drawing spirals in the air on the way, until it crashed just outside the base, raising a wave of smoke and salt that sent everybody into a coughing fit.

“What the –” Rey started.

“We're okay! We’re fine! Everything is fine!” Poe screamed, popping his head out of the cockpit.

“What is this, Poe?” Leia asked, folding her arms.

“Sorry General, but it’s kinda hard to drive with two people crammed on the seat”, he explained, jumping out of the ship. Finn popped his head out right afterwards.

Rey didn’t even wait for him to have left the ship properly before she threw her arms around his neck. He hugged her back, ignoring the pain in every muscle of his body.

“I missed you”, she said.

“I know”, he answered. “I saw your message.”

Behind them, BB-8 beeped proudly. With Poe's help, it hopped off of the ship and dashed inside the base, probably to annoy R2D2.

“Hey, Rey”, he said, awkwardly waving at her.

“Hey, Poe.”

"”You two already met?” Finn asked, pulling back from the hug.

“We were introduced”, they said, at the same time.

Finn looked from Poe, scratching the back of his head, to Rey, whose nose wrinkled, and he suddenly found himself very thankful that he had not indoctrinated on the Jedi teachings yet, because the thoughts that crossed through his head definitely didn’t align with them.

Rey snapped him back into reality when she flapped her arms, excitedly. “I need to tell you something!” she said. “I know who your mother is!”

“What? You do? You do! How?!”

“I found a lot of things. A lot. Including who my parents are”, she looked back, to Leia, who smiled at her.

Poe gasped. “Your mother is General Organa?” he asked, and he sounded rather jealous. Then he gasped again, even more loudly. “Hold on, I remember you!”

“You do?” Finn and Rey asked, in unison.

“Yeah, I remember – when you were little. You were always in the background during the General’s speeches. With Chewbacca. Oh, wow, it IS you! How did I not remember before?”

“It’s… complicated", she shrugged. “Let’s go inside and I will explain everything.”

The hangar doors were closed and the people inside took the moment to rejoice and regroup. Even the droids were having a moment - that meant, of course, C-3PO stepping in to stop R2D2 and BB-8, who were quite literally butting heads.

“That is quite enough, you two!” he hassled, breaking it off. BB-8 stuck his lighter out, before rolling his way back towards Poe. “And you, R2, I expected more from you!”

R2D2 beeped happily several times. Even if it didn’t want to admit, it had missed the old anxiety-ridden bucket head.

But, as one would expect, moments of happiness were not allowed to last. Theirs was soon interrupted by Rose and Kaydel, who had up until them stayed back at the command center to watch over the activity off-planet and make sure they were ready to depart. They ran back to the hangar, each trying to speak over the other.

“What is the problem? One at a time!” General Organa demanded.

“They are coming”, Rose managed to say, out of breath, her hands on her knees. “The First Order is coming.”

"”Already?” Senator Sloane asked, approaching them.

“How is that possible?” Vice-Admiral Holdo chipped in.

“We don’t know, but – there is more”, Connix added.

The women looked at each other, already fearing the worst. There was _always_ more.

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

“What the hell is that thing?” Poe squinted.

The hologram showed at least half a dozen First Order AT-AT units marching towards the doors, alongside twice as many TIE fighters; they were escorting what appeared to be a gigantic saber hilt.

Finn and Rose knew what it was. "It's a superlaser siege cannon", she said, with a defeated sigh.

“What’s that? What does that do?”

“It’s a miniaturized death star, basically”, Finn explained. Rose moved away from the table, her shoulder sunk in resignation. “But it also uses quintessence, to make it more powerful.”

“A couple of shots from that thing and these doors are done for”, Rose said, sitting in a corner.

“We can’t roll out and accept defeat just yet, Ms. Tico. Not as long as there is still a reason to fight”, Leia reminded. Even she had to admit that she was tired; every victory seemed to come away with a bitter taste right after, and every time they felt they were getting the upper hand, the First Order managed to stand back up. But she was not going to stop fighting now. “How can we take it down?”

“They have shield generators here, here and here”, Finn said, drawing circles around the hologram. “Once they are gone, a straight shot into the middle of the cannon can disable it, but it’s gonna be a precise shot, from the right angle.”

“And we would need to get rid of the rest of the artillery”, Poe added.

“Our X-Wings can do that”, Holdo said. “And we have enough ski speeders to put up a fight against the cannon.”

“Good”, Leia said, a little more confident. “Senator, Vice-Admiral, you evacuate the refugees. Connix, redirect whatever fuel we have left for the towers outside, and send the droids to man the cannons. Pava will take on the X-Wings, Dameron, you're in charge of the speeders.”

“Don’t I get nothing?” Luke asked, from his corner. “I was the best pilot in the galaxy a while back, y’know.”

“And so was Han, and so is Poe. This might as well be a beard-measuring contest”, Leia said, rolling eyes. But she didn’t say beard. “I have something else I need you to do.”

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

“Are we ready to fire?” Hux asked, looking over a technician shoulder, and out into the salty desert. From their hub behind the laser cannon, they could see the doors separating them from their goals.

Hux was still opposing the idea of attacking the Resistance – at least now, when they were low on resources, and without Supreme Leader Snoke to guide them properly. It didn't matter that Kylo had taken the title for himself – it wasn’t exactly a pin you could just put on and that made it the law.

But he also didn’t feel like arguing that with someone who could crush his windpipe whenever he got any minor inconvenience without so much as touching him.

“A couple more seconds, sir”, the technician informed, also fearing the weight of his hand.

“I want that door open now!” he shouted, slamming his hand on the panel.

“Sir, there are ships incoming”, the technician to his side announced. “A lot of them.”

Ahead, ports on the door open, letting out a wave of X-Wings. Jessika Pava led the fleet, much more easily adapting to the new control panels than Poe had; she shot down two TIE fighters before taking down the leg of an AT-AT, and the fight had not even started yet.

“Reinforce our shields”, Hux instructed, clenching his fist. “I want all of these vermin dead!”

The X-Wings served as a distraction for the second row of ships to come out. Led by Colonel Dameron, ten or so ski speeders jumped out into the salt desert.

“Remember our goal, people!” Poe reminded, over the comms. “Take out the shields, and aim for the eye of the storm!”

 _Easier said than done,_ most of them thought. They kept a tight formation, going in zig-zag so the cannon turrets missed their shots. TIE fighters and X-Wings were raining over them, making it even harder to navigate.

They took down two of the shield generators, but three ski speeders were lost in the process. The one between Finn and Poe blew up into a cloud of smoke, clogging up their lungs.

Shots were fired between the AT-ATs and the base’s weaponry; BB-8 and R2D2, wired to the tower's system, seemed to be competing to see which one could take down more ships in less time – a battle whose only losers seemed to be the First Order.

Things seemed to be going well.

Then the first shot of the superlaser cannon was fired.

Three more of the ski speeders were down in one go. The entire ground shook with the impact, and the sound of the door cracking could be heard across the battlefield. One of the defense towers came down under its own weight.

 _This is bad. This is very, very bad_ , Finn whispered to himself. He was too far to get a clean shot at the shield generator, and so were almost everybody else; their turrets were still relentless. The cannon had begun loading again.

But the Resistance still had one last trick up their sleeve.

From above, they heard the whistling sound of a ship coming, and shots being discharged. The Falcon swiped by, Chewie on the wheel and Rey at gun control, taking down the left shield panel. It, then, shot skyward, taking down the couple of TIE fighters fast on Pava’s trail.

“That’s my girl!” Poe heard Testor shout, over the comms.

But while the arrival of the Falcon drove away attention of the turrets and the TIE fighters, they were still left loading cannon. If it shot again, the people still inside the base would be defenseless. They needed to do something, even if it was just to buy them time.

 _He_ needed to do something.

“Finn, cover me”, he said.

“Why? What are you doing?” Finn asked, but there was no answer. “Poe! Poe, what are you doing?!”

But Poe had already turned off his radio. _The sacrifice of one for the lives of many_ , he thought, swallowing dry. Charging forward, he set out his thrusters to max, aiming directly to the eye of the cannon.

Finn realized what he was doing, seconds before it was too late. He pushed forward, until his speeder had paired up with Poe’s. “What the hell are you doing?” he insisted.

“What the hell are _you_ doing?” Poe shouted back, flailing his arm. “Pull back!”

“No! Not without you!”

With one hand on the wheel and the other stretched forward, Finn tried to reach out for him, but Poe was too far away – at least physically. That didn't mean there wasn't another way.

He closed his eyes and focused, searching within himself for that same power he had tapped into when he fell into the pit before; but this time, he didn't use it to pull something up, but rather, to pull something out.

Using every ounce of the Force he had on him, Finn dragged Poe out of his speeder and onto his own, despite the other man’s struggle. Once he was secure inside the speeder, Finn took a hard left, leaving the other ship to crash head-on into the cannon.

“You’re crazy! You could have died! Why would you do this?” Poe yelled, trying to fit on top of him on the cockpit.

“Because...you told me, family is the people you love, and the people that love you, and I... I wasn’t about to lose my family. Not again.”

Poe’s face went red. “You’re a good man, Finn Leonis”, he said, biting down his lower lip. “That’s why I love you.”

He leaned down, pressing his lips against Finn’s – briefly, a barely a peck. Finn was surprised at first, but he took no time in grabbing the back of Poe’s neck and pulling his face down to a proper kiss.

In retrospect, Finn just wished he had turned off the radio before his stunt. He didn’t need the whole Resistance channel hearing them.

While they found their way back to the base, with the Falcon escorting them and shooting down whatever TIE fighter remained in the way, the First Order found itself again scrambling. The ship had jammed the cannon, disabling its energy source temporarily and sending the First Order’s control into madness. Kylo Ren arrived just in time to see the system flashing red warnings all around them.

“How long until you can fire again?” he asked.

“We don’t – we can’t tell for sure, sir”, the technician to the left said, jamming as many buttons as he could. “We have to stabilize the main sectors before trying again and –”

“Doesn’t matter. They have nowhere left to run. I’m going there and finishing this myself”, he said, turning around.

“Are you insane?” Hux tried to argue, but Kylo pushed him aside.

“They are trapped in there. There is nowhere for them to go. This is where the Resistance ends.”

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

Kylo took the lead, marching towards the doors, the Knights of Ren standing at his side. Yles, Kohn and Jora to his right; Lyle, Oyro and Mera to his left. Hux, from the cannon, still thought it was insane, but he was sure that whatever outcome the confrontation provided, it would benefit him.

If Kylo did end up dying, that would be...what is the proper word.... _unfortunate_?

The first shot of the cannon had made a hole on the door – not enough for a ship to pass through, but sufficient for a person, maybe.

Or four.

The Jedi Master came first; unsurprisingly, his new pupil was right after. Kylo was almost taken aback, however, when he saw that after her came the traitor, the stormtrooper who’d been nothing but a nuisance to them for the last months. And, at last...General Organa herself.

“Look at that. You brought some of my former students along”, Luke said, bridging the gap between the two sides. “You know you don’t need to stay by his side, right? You can still avoid whatever is coming for you… Sohanna, Jethro…”

Ylse flinched. Jera took a step back.

“They will not listen to you, you sad old man”, Kylo rebutted. “This is the end for you and the rest of the Skywalker bloodline, the grave of the last Jedi.”

“Funny. Every word you just said is wrong”, Luke scoffed, and he unsheathed his green lightsaber.

Mirroring him, Rey ignited hers; so did Leia and Finn, with Tano #1 and #2 at hand.

The Knights were also ready. Each of them had adapted their sabers to their convenience – Kohn carried a pair of tonfa sabers; Lyle had a forked saber; Mera had a lightwhip; Oryo, a fiber-cord linked lightsaber; Jora, a double-bladed spinning saber; a and Yles, a saberstaff. All of them masters on their uses.

Kylo took the first step, but it was Luke who went ahead and cut the rest of the distance. The rest was chaos to follow.

With the dying light of the double suns as their setting, sabers crashed – red against blue, green, white. While Luke went after Kylo himself, each of the others took two others to face off. It had been years since Leia had last wield a lightsaber – Luke had trained with her when they went off to face someone who’d called herself the ‘Hand of the Emperor’; an ironic title since she ended up with both arms and legs chopped off – but it was kinda like riding a speeder. Some things you can’t forget. She used the same trick on Oryo as she had on her first opponent; with a little Force trick, she turned off the knight’s saber, and in that split second of distraction, used it to chop his limb off.

What? Nobody said anything about them fighting fair.

Rey and Finn fought back to back, like she had imagined they would so many times. She took on Lyle and Mera, and he Jora and Kohn. The strength of both sides collided, filling the air with the cracking sounds of blades clashing; Rey found herself lighter on her feet, unbound by the weight of her own body. She jumped when Mera slashed at her legs, somersaulting over Lyle when she came at her, her saber splitting the knight down from head to toe.

Kohn came for Finn, and blade met tonfas with a crack; on the reflection of his helmet, he saw Jora had thrown his lightsaber towards. He ducked at the last second and rolled out, in time to see the spinning saber cut him in half.

The knights fell, one by one, some more alive than the others; until there was only Kylo and Luke remaining.

It was like watching a dance: a push-pull where no one ever had the upper hand, their blows always coming too close – but missing by an inch. Luke, if anything, just looked rather amused by the whole experience, and that only served to anger Kylo more.

Kylo charged at him, but Luke bent backwards, and the blade missed by a hair.

“Are you even _trying_?” Luke mocked.

He struck again, and again, and again for good measure – but Kylo soon found himself surrounded, with his allies on the ground.

“Can you do it?” he asked, his lightsaber raised in defiance. “Can you kill me?”

“You? Yes. The body you’re in? That's a harder question.”

“Do it, you coward!” he demanded, and their lightsabers crashed again.

Luke pushed him off, and backed away. “See, Snoke, or Kylo – or however it is you’re calling yourself now – this is something you never learned while working with me”, he said, shaking his head. “Is that sometimes winning is not about defeating your enemies. It's about outsmarting them.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Kylo said.

“You’ll see.”

Luke winked, and as he did, he vanished from the battlefield. One by one, so did the other three.

On cue, the doors of the Resistance base opened, and a hundred or more ships flew off, having finally been loaded and getting the confirmation that the road was clear; the Falcon, where Luke had been gathered with Leia, Rey and Finn to link their minds together for their stunt was the last to go, followed only by a couple of bombers – led by one Rose Tico – who made sure to drop their payload on the unshielded superlaser cannon, incinerating whoever was still inside.

Hux last words were him cursing Kylo and the rest of the Skywalker family.

Kylo watched, on the smoldering ashes of what was meant to be his ultimate victory, as his enemies jumped to lightspeed, disappearing out of his clutch once again.

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

The ships regrouped on the _Homewrecker_ , off towards their next secret base. This time, however, it felt different: for the first in so long, they could truly breathe easily, knowing they would at least have a few days while the First Order pulled itself together.

In the meantime, they asked themselves, _what was next?_

“For now, we find our strength back”, Leia said, to all who’d been gathered to listen. The illusion trick she had suggested had taken its toll on all four of them. “Sleep. Eat. Recharge. This was a victory, but the war is not over.”

“Is it ever?” Luke asked himself, in the back.

No, probably not. But that shouldn’t mean they could give up.

His eyes wandered towards the younger crew – Rose, Kaydel, Jess, the refugee kids, and so on – who had sat on the floor, hurdled together in their own tiredness. Rey and Finn were resting head-to-head. Poe was nearby, too, though he had chosen to stand up.

He had been waiting until Finn woke up. Half his nails were gone by then.

“Hi! I mean. Hey. Can I talk to you?” he asked, when Finn opened his eyes. He ignored Rey and Jess’ whistling.

He took him aside, far enough that the others could not hear them. “So, what’s next? For you?” he wanted to ask _for us_ , but he feared that was a step too far. “Are you gonna train with Master Skywalker?”

“Not right now, no. I’m…” Finn bit down his lip. “I’m gonna look for my mom first. General Organa says we can track her last location down. Apparently my… my uncle – that’s so weird to say – he’s part of the Resistance, too, so…”

“Woah! Really? That’s – that’s amazing! Do, hmm, do you want me to come with you?”

“I think… I think the Resistance needs its best pilot around”, he said, adjusting Poe’s jacket. “Otherwise this whole place would collapse.”

“Don’t let Pava hear you”, he laughed. On the corner, she was talking to Rey, very nonchalantly pushing a strand of the other girl’s hair behind her ear. Rey was giggling. “Hey, before you go, I want you to have something.”

“More clothes? I still have your jacket, you know. I mean, BB-8 has. Where is BB-8?”

“Pestering R2D2, probably. I think they have a little crush going on”, Poe chuckled. “But it’s not a jacket.”

He reached around his neck and pulled out his necklace. At the end of it, his mother’s wedding ring was dangling. “I want you to have this”, he explained, putting it on Finn’s hands.

Finn blinked a couple of times, his mouth hanging out. “Wow. Okay. Wow. Poe, I–”

“My mother told me I should save it", he interrupted. "Until I found the right person. And think… I think I have.”

Finn rested his hand over Poe’s. They were shaking. “I don’t know what to say.”

“A yes would be good.”

“No, I mean! Yes! Obviously! I just–” he searched around his pockets. “I got nothing to give you.”

“Just… come back. That’s more than enough for me.”

“I can do that.”

They kissed, much to the joy of the girls watching - Pava, especially, who’d been tired of hearing Poe waxing poetry for Finn for months. Finally he’d done _something_ about it. Nerds.

She went on to congratulate/make fun of the couple, leaving a spot open next to Rey. Rose shifted spots, quickly taking it. “You know, that was amazing – what you did”, she said.

“Yeah. I was scared it wouldn’t work out, but I had faith on Master Skywalker”, Rey said. She looked over, to where Luke was, standing in front of a window with his arm wrapped around Leia's shoulder.

“Yes, but, I mean… going to the First Order’s ship… that took guts.”

Rey blushed. “I wouldn’t say that. It’s not that big a deal.”

“Are all Jedi this humble?” Rose chuckled.

“Only around cute girls”, Rey said, the words coming out of her before she noticed. “There weren’t a lot of those in Jakku.”

“Good thing you’re not there anymore”, Rose said. She almost turned pink too.

It was a good thing her mother (still so weird to even think that!) called for them, otherwise she would have imploded.

Rey and Rose approached the window. So did Finn, Poe and Jess. Together, the group watched as they approached a new, beautiful blue planet – promise of a new safe haven, a new beginning. The turning of a new leaf.

They did not notice, behind them, the little brother and sister whose mother had saved them from Kuyper. On the floor, they played with a Resistance insignia, throwing it up in the air and each taking turns to see who could keep it frozen in place the longest.

The Jedi had not been buried on Crait; rather, they had just been reborn.


End file.
